Five Tips for New Teachers to Become Connected Educators

This month, the U.S. Department of Education kicked off Connected Educator Month, with engaging keynotes, panel discussions, book chats, and more. During this month, educators in the U.S. and globally will have opportunities to connect themselves and their communities, online and in-person, to support their professional practice. In this article in Edutopia we find the following advice. Look at these 6 points and give yourself a score! How far have you come and how far are you willing to go?

1) Be Able to Define What It Means to Be a Connected Educator
2) Be Knowledgeable about Web 2.0
3) Be Willing to Join a Social Media Network
4) Become a Blogger
5) Be Reflective and Reach Out

I would like to add one point here:

5) Join Twitter and find educational hashtags that suit your need!

If you don’t know what that means I suggest you download this Connected Educator Starter Kit and get started!

The best of luck and hope to see you online soon!

 

21st Century Literacies

The Definition of 21st Century Literacies

The bullet points below are taken from the NCTE website, National Council of Teachers of English and are a great guideline for what should be taught in schools today. I think it is a great reminder of what we should  working with at every level. When the students start high school we hope they have some of these skills, but for the most part, these literacies have not been taught at all. It seems most teachers either assume the students have the required knowledge, or possibly do not know how to teach this. If it is not in the curriculum nobody bothers!

Literacy has always been a collection of cultural and communicative practices shared among members of particular groups. As society and technology change, so does literacy. Because technology has increased the intensity and complexity of literate environments, the twenty-first century demands that a literate person possess a wide range of abilities and competencies, many literacies. These literacies—from reading online newspapers to participating in virtual classrooms—are multiple, dynamic, and malleable. As in the past, they are inextricably linked with particular histories, life possibilities and social trajectories of individuals and groups.

Twenty-first century readers and writers need to

• Develop proficiency with the tools of technology
• Build relationships with others to pose and solve problems collaboratively and cross-culturally
• Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes
• Manage, analyze and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information
• Create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multi-media texts
• Attend to the ethical responsibilities required by these complex environments

Related articles

• On the important differences between literacies, skills and competencies. (dougbelshaw.com)

 

ISTE 2012 San Diego

Some thoughts about my third ISTE in San Diego June 2012

I think this year’s ISTE has been great. That said I know not everyone will agree with me. If you follow the Twitter feed #iste12 you might know what I’m talking about. Gary Stager on; meaningless clichés.

What I do know is that meeting people face to face is what counts the most, it is great when you finally get to see those you have been following on Twitter for a long time. As member of the PLP gang it is always fun to meet up with Sheryl Nussbaum Beach and this year I got to meet Jenny Luca from Australia. We have only communicated via Twitter but when we met it was as if we had been friends for a long time. We had lunch and made plans to do a project with our students next year, Shelly Wright has promised to participate as well. Look forward to seeing what exciting things might come from this connection. I also glad I got to meet with Beth Still and I almost met Sue Waters!

This year I didn’t spend much time taking notes, and I didn’t have time to update my blog, but I did use Twitter to save useful websites and comments and that is my main source for writing this post. To quote jackiegerstein; Twitter is the emancipation of teachers from the silos of isolation!

The conference started with the keynote by Sir Ken Robinson and I thought it was great. On the 10,5 hour flight to San Diego I read his revised new version of the book “Out of our minds”. Many of the points he made on stage I recognized from the book. He was funny, entertaining and had many good points. I think we all wished ISTE had given more talking time to Sir Ken Robinson and less on the promotion of ISTE and the panel discussion that followed. As you will see in this video it takes too long before he starts talking! Read some of the critical comments here.

Marc Prentsky was not at all what I had expected, don’t ask, but it was fun to have seen him. I read his book “digital natives” and even if I don’t agree with the terminology and the idea that all young people are digital natives, there are many good ideas in his book that you can use in class.

The next key note I attended was with Yong Zhao. I didn’t know anything about him before the keynote, and I was very impressed. Dr. Yong Zhao is an internationally known scholar, author, and speaker. His works focus on the implications of globalization and technology on education. He has designed schools that cultivate global competence, developed computer games for language learning, and founded research and develop institutions to explore innovative education models.The first thing I did after the key note was to buy his book, “Catching up or leading the way“. He has a new one out these days, but it’s not available on the Kindle yet. Take a look here to recapture the keynote, it is time well spent. (scroll the time line to 54 minutes!) Some quotes from the lecture: “American education is not in decline, it’s always been bad.” “American schools don’t teach creativity but they kill it less successfully.

The rest of the conference I pretty much went to the workshops I had planned to attend before I came. That way I end up listening to the people I follow on Twitter. Not the best way to expand my horizon (name of the ISTE conference this year, Expanding horizons) but it is a pretty safe bet when content is a priority. This year my favourites were those highlighted below. I have not written a resume from each workshop, but offer links and quotes taken from my Twitter feed:

Alan November; When challenging students to collaborate with other schools in other countries he offers this advice: Google with site: and country code to learn about other perspectives and get the other side of the story! Use Epals to connect classrooms, teachers should connect classrooms globally to discuss books, what a great opportunity that is. ow.ly/1O8tXb From Ewan McIntosh: Out of 400 people, USA’s tech elite at #iste12, only four people have used twitter to connect to authentic on the ground experiences. Teachers should use Twitter to connect with interesting people outside the classroom. You should teach students how to use Twitter as a search engine! Digital natives, not true. Kids do not know how to use Google! Scary!

Chris Lehmann: I have written about Chris in previous posts. He is the principal at SLA in Philadelphia. His students and teachers are amazing and I really enjoyed visiting the school in January. Here are some of the Twitter feeds from Chris and from his presentation. Personalization can’t mean we do same stuff at a different pace. Anyone who tries to sell you that, call them out! Inquiry isn’t us asking kids questions we know the answer to; but don’t just present blank page. Offer guided inquiry. See slides here. High Tech High publishes student work as PDFs and uploads them to Lulu where they can be bought as physical books. Study group are essential to student learning. Exhibition as a critical piece of project-based learning at High Tech High. “never fall in love with your curriculum to the point where you forget the children in front of you.

David Warlick Great source of infographics from Dwarlick. Here are some useful links: davidwarlick.com/graphicaday/. Google public data, great way to research ow.ly/1O8Vxv easel.ly create infographics. InfoGraphic a day, David Warlick ow.ly/1O8VKV. Co-learners a digital textbook of sorts.

Kevin Honeycutt I have written about Kevin in a previous post. I really wanted to invite him to Norway this November, but his calendar was already full! Hopefully we will see him in Oslo next year instead. Check out his web page, iPad users click here: kevinhoneycutt.org

Patrick Larkin and George Curcos Are two principals I have been following on Twitter for a long time. I hope to see them both at our conference in November. They are great examples of what principals could do to lead by example. They had a great presentation at ISTE and here are some of the links I found useful! Blockbuster Offers Glimpse Of Movie Renting Past – YouTube bit.ly/NymVt3. The Letter Every Apple Employee Gets On Their First Day bit.ly/LzSDep. Google Chrome: Make It Happen – YouTube bit.ly/MAnZ06. Now, after 30 years, you can carry all of this in your pocket. bit.ly/KR0ZJ3. Brand your school as a creative learning organization where every kid is unique and special. We don’t allow the teachers to grade student blogs… as soon as we grade the blog it becomes the teachers not the students. Texas hospital live-tweets brain surgery bit.ly/Jtigue. About the Learning Leader Project bit.ly/HgDH1H. Students as Blog Leaders bit.ly/yJskO. Social Media for Administrators #cpchat #iste12 bit.ly/KKg29l

Evernote: Web clipper for Evernote on the iPad ow.ly/bRMWn

Ewan McIntosh Ewan presented at our conference last year. This year his colleague Tom Barret will be presenting at our school in November . He had a great presentation where he showed how you can teach history, science, and a lot more using data! Data is all about telling a story. Ewan shows how to use gapminder and data. David McCandles ow.ly/1O9j6v information designer. Wordle should be used more to visualize data ow.ly/1O9jae. Set aside 20 minutes a week to search for cool stuff! Wear headphones and pretend you are doing something serious. BBC, how many really, comparing numbers ow.ly/bRXZc. Information is beautiful great web site ow.ly/1O9jDI. Freebase, everything under the sun visualized ow.ly/1O9jTq.

My poster session

Ingunn and I had a poster session Monday from 8-10. I don’t know if we really expected any visitors, but we were surprised. Many were interested in the topic 1:1 schools with block scheduling. I think we surprised many with block scheduling from 08:30 to 1:10 pm each day! More info about session here, and my slides are here!

Helping teachers

Expanding horizons was the name of the conference. I think it captures the essence of what we are trying to accomplish in our classroom. To connect students with other students, writers, reporters and ordinary people living in different countries. That is the best way to learn about cultures, conflicts, religions and how people leave in different parts of the world. Imagine teaching history, second world war and connecting with people who live in Norway, Germany, France and Great Britain to discuss what happened. Or study indigenous people by connecting students in Australia, Alaska and Norway? Nobody can disagree because to me it makes perfect sense. Laptops, iPads, computers and social media makes it both easy and doable. Why then are so few teachers connecting to the world using Twitter and writing blogs? I hope they don’t imagine that the students are doing this alone? I think the answer is that it is too difficult. Everything is difficult if you don’t know how to do it. And it is equally difficult for the students. Forget digital natives. This is something we all need to learn! That is why listening to Alan November was so refreshing. He had great examples of what the teacher could do to connect. Let’s just hope those of us who were able to attend this year’s conference will go home to our schools and lead by example!

Let me end by this quote: Every teacher has the right to live in a cave, but they don’t have the right to drag their students in with them, T. Whitby. After spending 3 days with the world’s technological elite in education it is clear to me! In danger of getting on the cliché bandwagon; It is time to change! It’s not about the technology but what you can accomplish with it! It is about knowing the right people to follow and it is about connecting. Showing your students what they can accomplish and guiding them. It really is about expanding horizons! Feel bad about not attending? Try to catch up by watching the ISTE’s You tube channel.

 

ISTE 2012

Just over a week before I board an air plane on my way to San Diego and my third ISTE conference! I am determined to make the most of it since I rather suspect it will be my last for a long time. (Time and cost!). With so many choices and great presenters it is really hard to chose how to get the most out of the time there. I remember writing this down after Philadelphia last year:

As a second time visitor to ISTE I felt pretty confident that I would be able to learn a lot, meet new people and be amazed. I did accomplish all of the above, but wish I had more time, had networked more and had attended more presentations. Not to mention that I did not spend any time at the Bloggers’ cafe.

My advice to first time visitors:

1. ISTE’s10 Tips for ISTE 2012 Attendees: Making the Most of Your Conference Experience
2. Join the people at the Blogger’s cafe and SocialEdCon, find dates time and info here!
3. Look for info here: Cybraryman Internet Catalogue
4. Be sure to visit the Newbie Lounge – info here!
5. Sign up here to find people to follow on Twitter

My plan this far: attend these presentations and spend time in the Newbie Lounge and Bloggers cafe! See you!

Conference Planner for Ann S. Michaelsen

Sunday, June 24
3:00-5:00pm	ISTE 2012 Tweet-up [Other Program Events; Meeting/Gathering] Location: SDCC Halls DE Lobby, Table Table 29
5:45-7:00pm	Redefining Horizons: Encouraging Students’ Passion to Achieve [Sir Ken Robinson  Keynote]
Monday, June 25
8:00-10:00am	Block Scheduling in a 1:1 School: Itslearning, PLN, Global Classroom Ann Michaelsen, Ingunn K. Wiig
11:00am-12:00pm	Digital Learning Farm: Students as Contributors Alan November
11:00am-12:00pm	Personal and Professional Growth Using Web 2.0 Steve Hargadon
12:45-1:45pm	Spreading the Word: Eight Ways to Start Conversations around Change Will Richardson
2:30-3:30pm	Empathy: The 21st Century Skill Alan November, November Learning
4:15-5:15pm	Beyond Googling: Using Technology To Build A Culture of Inquiry  Chris Lehmann, Science Leadership Academy
5:30-6:45pm	Online Communities of Practice and Their Role in Education Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, Powerful Learning Practice with Darren Cambridge
Tuesday, June 26
10:30-11:30am	What’s It Means To Be a Digital Leader? Unpacking the NETS*A Steven Anderson with Kyle Pace
10:30-11:30am	High Tech High Student Work Larry Rosenstock,
12:15-1:15pm	The Many Faces of the Flipped Classroom Aaron Sams,  Brian Bennett, Jonathan Bergmann
12:15-1:15pm	Networked Educators: The Art of Leveraging Social Media to Connect Beth Still, ESU 13 with Paula Naugle, Nicholas Provenzano and Josh Stumpenhorst
2:00-3:00pm	A Broader Perspective on Data: Infographics and Visualization David Warlick, The Landmark Project
3:45-4:45pm	The Steep Unlearning Curve: Rethinking Schools, Classrooms, and Learning Will Richardson,
5:00-6:15pm	Digital Jam: A Rocking Event with iPads, iPods, and You! Kevin Honeycutt, ESSDACK with Ginger Lewman
Wednesday, June 27
8:30-9:30am	The Evolving Face of Leadership in 21st Century Schools Patrick Larkin, Burlington High School
10:45-11:45am	Sneak Preview: Windows 8 – Windows Reimagined Anthony Salcito, Microsoft Worldwide Education
11:45am-12:45pm	Data Reveals Stories: How Students Can Use Data for Learning Ewan McIntosh, NoTosh Limited digital | design thinking
1:15-2:15pm	Learning 2.0: How Social Media is Redefining Learning and Teaching Steve Hargadon, Classroom 2.0

 

Connected Test-Taking: Is It Cheating?

I recently wrote a post called “Connected Test-Taking: Is It Cheating?” at the Voices from the Learning Revolution.

Would you like to have access to the internet when taking your exam?

Since our school has been chosen to participate in a national trial for using the internet during examinations, l attended a meeting at the “Utdanningsdirektoratet” Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training to learn more about the project and how to prepare students, teachers and our ict tech department. I went to the meeting full of enthusiasm and was surprised to learn that many of the other participants were very sceptical. In fact some didn’t seem that eager to participate at all. When you invite a bunch of ict people (here meaning the tech people how are almost always guys!) into a room and start discussing the use of laptops in the classroom it usually end up with a depressing discussion about cheating and how we should never trust the students. You often leave meetings like that quite frustrated with the notion that all students want to cheat and that they are quite devious about doing it too!I

2012 – 21st century skills?

I refuse to think like that. I refuse to think that we should carry on testing the way we are now! I know I’m not being naive here. It’s 2012. The internet has been widely available and expanding exponentially for 20 years or more. Why is looking up information during an exam or test considered cheating? When preparing posts for this blog I rely on information found online. That is the way everyone works these days. No one is expected to know or remember all the facts and information available out there. We should be testing  “21st-century skills” meaning core competencies such as collaboration, digital literacy, critical thinking, and problem-solving.

Learning from your students?

I think it is great that we are able to test using the internet during exams. I look forward to discussing this with my students before and after the exam. They have already written about this on their blogs and that is a great way to find out what they think about the topic, and to learn more about all the different ways to use the internet when writing. Like Sara wrote:  When writing, I also try to avoid using the same words repeatedly. I’ll often use  Google to find synonyms. For example, I could write “Lucky + synonym”. It gives me 184,000 results, in 0.29 seconds. Now I know that other alternatives to the word “lucky”, could be: advantageous, beneficial, blessed, serendipitous, or fortunate. Sometimes I like to finish with a good question or quote, like the this one that I found at http://www.quotegarden.com:

Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet and they won’t bother you for weeks.  ~Author Unknown

 

Connected educator!

One day workshop for teachers on how to use social media in class

Objectives:

1. After attending this workshop teachers should be able to use resources found online when planning lessons with students. They should know how to introduce blogging and Twitter in class, and how to make a blog and twitter account.  Participants will explore alternative ways for students to present in class and see how OneNote on Skydrive can be used as a way to save web pages, essays, projects, grammar and instructions for use during tests, project work and exams. Participants will spend time finding educators and students to connect with on Skype. Before the end we will look at how to tie curriculum goals to rubrics and talk about how to make sure the students are working with content at all times! The key point is avoiding the danger of distraction. If you have questions or concerns during this workshop, please post here!
   

Pre study activities:

1. Blogging in class, why, answers to some questions you might have
2. Twitter with students. Twitter as part of your PD, Using visible tweets with students, and as a learning tool. Example of use of Twitter: Grey’s anatomy my OR!
3. Speaker Radio, how to introduce this in class, on air in 60 seconds.
4. One Note, what is it, how do we use it and what is Skydrive?
5. Skype in the classroom, how can I find teachers, projects  and collections?
6. The world of infotention - how to stay focused on what is important. Keeping students engaged in a 1:1 project based classroom. Teachers need rules too!

Lesson plan:

1. Start off by setting up your own blog. Start with Blogger.com, Easy tutorial found here.
2. Create a Twitter account, find out how here. In workshop find 5 educators to follow.
3. Speaker radio – create a Live internet Radio Show Free. Talk about the workshop and what you would like to use in class!
4. One Note, getting started, sharing online and setting up skydrive (Norwegian part 1, part 2, part 3)
5. Skype in the classroom, try to contact educators on Skype education to connect with.
6. Brainstorming to make rules on how to stay focused when working in class, post here!

To use in class:

1. Writing better blogposts, how to write a great blog comment. 
2. Twitter in class. Some ways to improve your test scores! Twitter in the classroom, Twitter in education.
3. Speaker Radio – get going and make a show! Find info here. Magazine and radio, tasks here.
4. One Note used in a high school, how can the students make a notebook they share with class?
5. See here how teachers connect, how could you find students to connect with? Use a topic from class and make it an international project.
6. Use Wallwisher to brainstorm rules on how to use the computer in class

Assessment:

1. Rubric for blogging
2. Rubric for Twitter
3. Rubric for oral presentation, with storyboard.
4. Rubric for note taking
5. Rubric for collaborating
6. Rubric for staying on task, contributing knowledge, performed all duties and shard skills.

Extra activities!

Look at links on this page (or on the web) you think you could use in class in the categories listed below. Copy- paste the link in this document:

• Documentaries
• Searching images
• Publishing online
• Learning languages
• Comparing living conditions in different countries
• Finding class blogs online

Join the conversations:

• Twitter = @annmic
• Scoop it: Connected educator

 

Blogg, twitter and WebNote

I think I found the perfect solution on how to comment on my students blogs. When I read my students’ blogs I usually post comments about the content. And I try to use the “2 stars and 1 wish”! But sometimes I find too many spelling or grammar mistakes and I want give the students the chance to correct this. I would usually copy their post into Word, correct the mistakes and then send the document back using the message system in our LMS. It’s time consuming to say the least. Now I use WebNote and Twitter!

Students enjoy writing blogs, here are some of my students’ comments:

“The whole idea of having a blog is something I now find fun and useful, as it is exciting being able to share your work with others, and comment on other people’s work.” Sara

People can read your blog and comment on your blog, and I figured out today that my blog has already been visited 276 times since August. That was quite cool, and according to the site state , my blog has been visited from people worldwide such as Croatia, Brazil, Great Britain, Australia, Argentina.” I must say that I’m positive surprised about the strategy using blogs and reading each other’s blogs, it’s interesting, fun and inspiring reading about how for example another student in class reflects around a topic or his/hers own experiences/meanings when it comes to solving a problem. Alba.

I have made a video where I explain how to use WebNote with blogs and Twitter. All my students now have Twitter accounts. It is a great way to send messages to the students and to share links. They all had to put a link to their Twitter names on their blogs. Makes it easy for me and fun for them! Take a look and try it! And pardon my accent!

Webnotes in English

►

 

Curiosity – from the Discovery Channel

Curiosity is a website — and a new television series — from the Discovery Channel. People send in their questions — and there are some fascinating questions — and get accessible multimedia answers in return. You can also apply to become an expert to help answer questions, too. Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for writing  this on his Websites of the Day. I intend to use this site in class.

Premiering August 7th, 2011, Curiosity promises a television experience unlike any other. Join Stephen Hawking, Morgan Freeman, Michelle Rodriguez, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Morgan Spurlock, Adam Savage, Mike Rowe, Brendan Fraser, Eli Roth, Robin Williams and many more celebrity hosts on the journey for truth, as we go to extremes to uncover answers that will surprise even the most curious among us..

 

Best of the web

Richard Byrne is a full-time job is teaching US History and Civics to high school students at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School in South Paris, ME. I frequently visit his web page for inspiration. Take a look at his Google presentation the best of the web. Some really neat places to visit here!

 

Teaching how to use blogs with students

Using blogs in class

I started writing on my blog for use in class March 2008. The first month I had 43 visitors! I was in the beginning reluctant to start since I was afraid of what others might think about it and my spelling mistakes! That year I visited many schools and the teachers would ask me if I could share some of the cool stuff I had found on the net and used with my students. The learning management system we use in Akershus Norway is not easy to use when sharing with other teachers. The following year 2009 I asked my students to write blogs too. Here are some points about using blogs in class that I would like to share. It is actually an answer to a fellow teacher in Finland who has kindly commented on my blog and also asked me some questions.

FACTS: All my students have individual blogs and I link them to my own web-page in the sidebar. That way it is easy for the  students to read  other students’ text and learn from each other. Sometimes I have other teachers comment too. I will in August remove my old students’ blog links and add the new ones for my new class. If I had more then one class I would probably do this on a separate page.

Q1. You use WordPress for your own blog but the student blogs are on Blogger. Any reason? Student choice? Do you find Blogger easier for students to use?

A1: I love WordPress and swear by it. My students can chose what they want to use. I show them Blogger because it is easy. This year I think 3 students used WordPress too.

Q2. All your student blogs seem to be publicly viewable. Did you ask your students’ opinion about it or was it just taken for granted? Did any of them protest? Are any of them underage, and in that case, did you have to ask their parents’ approval?

A2: We talk about it and so far nobody has objected. They are 17 when we start the school year. I do not ask parents’ approval. They do not submit pictures or full names on the blogs. All they write about is school related. If they write anything personal I ask them to remove it. One time a student wrote about another teacher. It is actually a good teaching opportunity. They get it.

Q3. Do your student write their blog mainly at home or do you also do it in class?

A3: They mainly write in class. Sometimes they have to finish at home. I think it is a good idea to do both.

Q4. Do you correct your students’ writing in any way? Or do you give them individual feedback in some way? I noticed that you have written encouraging comments in most of their posts – do you find this takes a lot of your time?

A4: I never correct anything on the actual blog. Sometimes when they have many spelling/grammar mistakes I correct it in Word and send it using our LMS. I asked them to correct the blog post. After we found that many are actually reading their posts they were more eager to correct. They have an actual audience out there. See this post where I wrote more about blogging. I pride myself with reading everything they write. And I try to comment everything too. It takes a lot of time that is true. But I think it is wort it. I make an RSS feed and look at it everyday. They usually write at different times and that makes it easier. I quickly know who need more attention and who writes really well. I must say I thoroughly enjoy it. I learn a lot too.

Related articles

• WordPress – Regulating Comments from Students (med523summer11.wordpress.com)
• Creating a WordPress Blog for the Classroom (ameseroom.wordpress.com)
• Do You Think Teachers Should Blog? (blogworld.com)
• The Importance of Student Reflection (weber.k12.ut.us)