My fabulous colleagues back home in New Zealand have been enjoying the Learning@Schools09 Conference held in Rotorua.  When my good friend AllanahK tweeted that she was organising a “Matt-style” dance at the start of Wes Fryer’s Keynote presentation, I couldn’t resist the urge to tweet back “Can I skype in?”

Sure enough – at 7.15am Bangkok, Thailand time, and 1.15pm, New Zealand time, she did just that- skyped me in so that I could join in the dance too.  It was brilliant – almost like being there.  I was able listen to Wes’s Keynote until Allanah’s battery finally died.  I wish I could have been there in personal to reconnect with old friends, make new friends, and learn new things from incredibly talented people.  Watch the video!

I originally used jing to capture the screen on my laptop (’cos that’s all I had), then discovered that it saves as .swf. Drat – not editable (without the Pro version – funny that?).  So here’s the master genius work around I used:

Step 1:  Grab Jeff Utecht on his way out the door – (’cos he has ScreenFlow)
Step 2:  Replay .swf on his laptop and re-capture using ScreenFlow – saves as a .mov, edit as you go
Step 3:  Import into iMovie – add titles and credits
Step 4:  Play real “Dancing with Matt” video on YouTube to capture the soundtrack using Audio Hijack Pro
Step 5:  Import audio into iMovie – adjust sound levels
Step 6:  Upload to teachingsagittarian’s YouTube channel

Did I mention that I love my mac laptop?

We’re involved in Silvia Tolisano’s short, simple yet so powerful Skype project AroundTheWorldwith80Schools.  In just two short weeks we have connected with seven different classrooms in four parts of the world.  And we’re not stopping there!  By the end of our school year, I hope to share with you that we managed to connect right around the globe.

As I reflect on our involvement in this project, I wonder what this has done for my students.  At first I thought that it really didn’t bother my students one way or another that we were connecting with so many different classrooms around the world.  But then, their excitement hardly ever shows – unusual I know, but seriously true.  I worry about that because they’re only 5th graders – what’s happened to their natural “wonderment and awe?”

However, my mother taught me really well – not to judge a book by it’s cover – so I decided if I was truly going to reflect on using this tool in the classroom, I ought to ask those that have the biggest stakehold – my students.

Here’s the questions I asked them and a sample of their replies.  You be judge of the value of using a tool like skype in the classroom with your students.

How do you feel stopping for 5-10 minutes, to skype with a class in other country?

Yes, we should keep on making connection around the world, because it helps us understand about different parts of the world and their cultures, but mainly because it’s fun.

Skyping with another class in another country for 5-10 minutes is great because you learn about their school, their way of life, their beliefs, and their culture. I have learned many different things about the topics in the previous sentence.

I like the idea of taking 5-10 minutes off to skype because it is a fast and easy way to communicate and learn about the other place we are skyping in a short time.

Do you learn anything when we talk to other students from around the world?

Yes!
what the weathers like
what the other kids in that school play in recess
and other unfamilliar subjects we don’t do.

I learn about other people’s lives and it’s fun to compare them to mine.

I have learned about other countrys, culture, about them, and the location that they are in

Do you use Skype at home to connect with family/friends?

I’ve never connected on skype with my friends in America but I connect with my family in America except the skype that we do is we call them with our computer and it calls their real phone not their computer so that means that we can’t use a camera so that’s how it is different.

At home I Skype with my Grandparents in the USA, and my parents have other contacts in their Skype “phonebook.”

I use skype a lot at home because i skype my dad a lot when ever he leaves the country and i really like to skpe my friends.

I don’t use Skype at home.

No

What have you learned about communicating with others using Skype in classroom?

I have learned that on Skype calls you have to speak loudly and clearly, so the person on the other end of the line can hear you and understand you.

I learned that communicating with other people around the world can be very easy and simple.

Should we continue to make connections with other classrooms around the world?  Why? / Why not?

Also i really think that this helps people in our class to because you finally get a chance to say things about yourself and were you live to other people around the world.

I think that we should continue making connections with other schools because you will get to meet more people and learn more about the place that they are at.

I think we should keep skyping with other classrooms around the world because you learn about other people’s experiences and daily lives. Afterwards, you can compare and contrast them with your experiences and life.

I think we should keep doing skype calls but a thing we could do to make it better is if the calls had a bit more purpose because right now we arent getting anything really meaningful about the country we skype with.

I was thinking this was pretty honest and valuable feedback.  My class are relatively well-connected with family and friends that live around the world – being International families means they need to, they like the fast and simple stuff, they enjoy learning about students just like them and comparing themselves and they like meeting new people.

My take-away ……. Keep using skype to make connections and have conversations around the world – keep it short – skyping is fun but it needs a purpose.  Even in Grade 5 students are looking for the purpose in whatever it is they being asked to do.

Image Attribution: 'Skype Phone' www.flickr.com/photos/23456072@N00/41676755

Wednesday’s afternoon face to face session for our ISB Cert. of Educational Technology & Information Literacy (COETAIL.Asia) was a blast!

In groups we each looked a trend from the Horizon Report.  We then had 30 minutes to prepare a 2 minute presentation answering the question “How has your trend changed the learning landscape?”

The presentations ranged from videos to scenes in the elevator and were not only informative about the Horizon Report Trends but hilarious!

Our group worked on the One Year or Less: Mobile trend.  So, according to the Horizon Report in one year or less Mobile phones are going to change the learning landscape in our classroom.  Here’s our two minute presentation.

So what’s my take away?  It wasn’t any of the information presented from the Horizon Report – it was the format that we used for discovering information and presenting it to our pairs.  Using the Elevator Pitch was fast-pitched, inspiring, motivating, and a lot of fun.  I can’t wait to create the similar “buzz” by introducing this Elevator Pitch technique to my students.  If you’re not sure what an Elevator Pitch is ….. watch the video below.

For the month of March, a group of educators and lifelong learners will be picking a “Tweet of the day” and ReTweeting it with a tag: #gr8t

Hopefully, you will join us in doing this too.

There are a number of reasons why you might want to participate:
• To share what you value about twitter.
• To [[|see what others value about twitter]].
• To celebrate the power and wisdom of your Personal Learning Network.
• To find interesting people to follow on Twitter.

My choice for what to retweet with #gr8t will be a Tweet that I find interesting, or insightful, or humorous. It might link to something I enjoyed reading, or it might have something profound or even fortune-cookie-like that appeals to me:

There aren’t really any rules to participate: Find a tweet you value, and share it!

For Example, here is a Tweet I’d like to share:

And so I retweet it with #gr8t:

Then it shows up on the Gr8Tweets wiki and on twitter searches for others to see and share.
I’m looking forward to sharing the Gr8tweets that I find, at least one daily for the month of March, and I’m hoping you will join me and share what you find.
Feel free to follow Gr8tweets on Twitter and Gr8tweets will follow you back, (this part is totally optional).

Even if you aren’t on twitter or you don’t want to participate, be sure to check out the Gr8Tweets wiki and see some of the reasons why so many educators are finding Twitter a valuable tool!

This weeks readings were Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom by Marc Prensky (Edutopia) and Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth Project “Conclusions and Implications” pg. 35 – 39 (MacArthur Foundation Report)

I have to admit, I’ve been putting this post off.  Whilst I found the MacArthur Foundation Report rounded up the messages that all of our readings have been pointing us toward – the value, recognition and importance of social networking, messing around, collaboration, peer-based learning etc,  I am just a bit wary about what Marc Prensky writes.

This wariness originally grew from a valid point written in a blog post that a very good friend and colleague of mine wrote after he completed an assignment for a paper he was doing – the topic – the frequently- commented-on terms Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. The valid point?  Marc Prensky made some statements in that article for which there are no references to research carried out or other reading he has gleaned pieces of information from.

I find myself wondering the same about this article.  Where is Marc Prensky’s information coming from.  What does he base his statements on – research? personal opinion? observations?  Has he ever been a classroom teacher?  Or is this point of view solely from someone who may have spent a lot of time in various schools but not actually been a part of one.  Has he traveled around the world visiting a variety of schools or is this article aimed solely at the American public education system?  And what about the parents?  Where do they factor in all of this?

Technically speaking, I’m a Digital Immigrant – but I’m definitely beyond the old things in new ways step and I do ask my students their opinions, and value their feedback.  It is my firm belief that we should be using the right tools for the job.  If a letter is required, then I shall write a letter, if a face to face message is more appropriate than an email – that’s what I will do.  If a digital tool can help students construct meaning in an authentic way then use that technology.  Don’t use the technology just for the sake of using it – make sure it’s right for what you want need to do.

I think we need to be a 1 to 1 school if we are to truly prepare our future workforce for jobs that haven’t even been invented yet – but the reality is it’s not going to happen yet.  So should I sit back on my heels and blame lack of computers or lack of skills a reason for not using technology in my class? – Heck no!  I’m innovative, I’m creative and I’m darn sure that technology embedded in learning is the direction education and educators have to move in and it’s the direction that I am committed to move in, passionate to move in and prepared to move in!

The thorny part, for me, is the sweeping generalisations about teachers.  There’s a fair few of us out there in education land that aren’t like what you describe Mr Prensky and we are definitely living up to your last words which I really do agree with SO
I’ll let you have the last word …..

Let’s adapt it, push it, pull it, iterate with it, experiment with it, test it, and redo it, until we reach the point where we and our kids truly feel we’ve done our very best. Then, let’s push it and pull it some more. And let’s do it quickly, so the 22nd century doesn’t catch us by surprise with too much of our work undone.

Image Attribution
‘long prickles‘ www.flickr.com/photos/76187282@N00/239243059
‘Working Together Teamwork Puzzle Concept‘
www.flickr.com/photos/22177648@N06/2137737248

Literacy has been a major focus for the Elementary School this year.  Keeping that in mind, it’s no wonder that our Project Sketch for the end of Course 1 of the ISB Cert. of Educational Technology & Informational Literacy (COETAIL.Asia as it’s affectionately known) is based around Reader’s Workshop.  Coming up this Semester is the Unit Study Social Issues and it’s through this curriculum area that we will build our Project.

Our Grade 5 team for this project has four fabulous members:  Diane, Robin, Dan and myself.  The following is our sketch for our Project Based Learning in the classroom.  We’ve got a bit of planning still to do during our  Saturday f2f meeting time – but that’s ok.  Here’s the gist of our thinking at this stage:

In our Project for  we hope to successfully address the following ISTE National Educational Technology Standards (NETS•S) and Performance Indicators for Students

1. Creativity and Innovation
Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes
using technology. Students:
a. apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes.
b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression.
c. use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues.
d. identify trends and forecast possibilities.

5. Digital Citizenship
Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Students:
a. advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology.
b. exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity.
c. demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning.
d. exhibit leadership for digital citizenship.

Using Glogster we hope to met the requirements for both standards above.  Glogster is an online tool that allows you to mix graphics, photos, videos, music and text into slick glogs.

A glog (Interactive Poster) will not only provide the vehicle to help students creative original works to express their ideas about Social Issues but it will provide us with the perfect opportunity to help students gain an understanding of Digital Citizenship – with a major focus on copyright, creative commons, appropriate graphics, and collaboration.

I’ve just become aware about some major proposed changes in NZ law that will have a huge impact on artists, businesses, and general members of the public: basically anyone that uses the internet, and I thought you should know about them.
The Section 92 of the Copyright Amendment Act assumes Guilt Upon Accusation and forces the termination of internet connections and websites without evidence, without a fair trial, and without punishment for any false accusations of copyright infringement. We should speak out against injustices like Guilt Upon Accusation being done in the name of artists and protecting creativity.
The countdown is on: we have until 28 February 2009 to influence government.
An organisation called the Creative Freedom Foundation has been set up to specifically represent artists voices on these issues. Check out their website: http://www.creativefreedom.org.nz , sign up and help our MPs make an informed decision about S92!

Fellow COETAIL’s – we’ve been reading about personal learning networks and the power of connectivism.

Here’s a real life example of what is possible with a network.  New Zealand’s next door neighbour, Australia is suffering right now from raging bushfires.  These fires have already claimed the lives of many Australians, their homes, their schools, their communities.

From Jenny Luca’s Ning – Working Together 2 Make A Difference

Victoria, the State I live in in Australia, has been hit by a tragic natural disaster that is affecting the lives of many of our country communities. On Saturday the 7th of Feb., bushfires, fanned by fierce northerly winds in 46 degree celcius temperatures, ravaged our countryside, leading to the deaths of 173 people. This figure is expected to rise to over 200 in the coming days as they gain access to affected areas and search homes. Native animals, livestock and family pets were other victims of this disaster.

So how can we all make a difference? We would love to see our education community from near and far band together to support the communities in need. What is needed is money to help schools rebuild, families rebuild their lost homes and for communities to build the infrastructure needed that has been lost in these fires.

What can you do? Anything that will help your students to understand the need to help others when the situation is dire. Be it a sausage sizzle, free dress day, bake sale, whatever it takes to raise a few dollars that can be used to support others. In the next few days, with the help of Sheryl Nussbaum Beach and some words of wisdom from Clarence Fisher, we’ll be setting up a paypal account to direct funds you raise to the Red Cross appeal that has been set up to support those affected. Create a page here and let us know your plans. We can support one another and link our schools to a common cause. Let’s show the world how the education community can use the tools at our disposal to connect and support one another for a common purpose.

Let’s make a difference too and continue to show the power of a network by extending a hand to those that are in desperate need of our help.

This week our COETAIL course directs our attention to three readings to digest and reflect upon.

Reading #1:  [New] Bloom’s Taxonomy Digitally by Andrew Churches (Tech & Learning)

Bloom’s Taxonomy is nothing new.  What I particularly like about the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy and it’s direct impact upon my own teaching practise is the way learning can be scaffolded depending on the learning taking place.  Bloom’s taxonomy encourages us to take students thinking steps further by beginning with lower order thinking skills (LOTS) and naturally progressing to higher order thinking skills (HOTS).  When planning tasks, I try to include more HOTS than LOTS to encourage students to go beyond the recall and regurgitate phase and into the internalise and construct new meaning/knowledge phase.  The simple suggestion of verbs in the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy helps me to include learning tasks that will help develop a variety of levels of thinking from my students.

What is of particular interest to me in Andrew Churches’ article New Bloom’s Taxonomy Digitally is the authentic incorporation of digital tools on offer – how to do it or how to use them in in such a way that is rigorous, challenging and of sound pedagogical foundation.  Andrew has given the 21st Century Educator ways to incorporate skills in for today’s learners in a digital world.  New web 2.0 tools are changing the way we receive, process, and produce information.  As educators we need to authentically and realistically include those tools/skills in our toolbox for learning if we are to fully embrace the direction that 21st Century Digital Literacies are progressing.  Andrew Churches has produced a wiki, Educational Origami jam-packed with resources, explanations, sound justifications and information on Bloom’s Taxonomy.  He further details the 21st Century Educator and the skills needed to be that kind of educator in a world where our students jobs in the future don’t even exist yet.  Having just content-driven curricula is no longer good enough for our learners of today for employment of the future.

Reading #2  Connectivism:  A Learning Theory for the Digital Age by George Siemens

My favourite quotes from this article:

Over the last twenty years, technology has reorganized how we live, how we communicate, and how we learn.

Wondering …… why is it so difficult to encourage a change in the way we teach?

Within social networks, hubs are well-connected people who are able to foster and maintain knowledge flow.

Wondering ……. are we teaching our students to be well-connected?  Remember Clarence’s skype call?  Does our own pedagogy support this foundation idea of connectivism?

The pipe is more important than the content within the pipe. Our ability to learn what we need for tomorrow is more important than what we know today.

Wondering ……. plus the ability to unlearn and relearn …….. it is no longer necessary for the teacher to be the font of all knowledge.  Does my teaching practise reflect this?  Is our learning environment set up in such a way that fosters the development of learning for tomorrow?  Could our students flourish in a digital era?

Reading #3  Living and Learning with New Media: Summary of Findings from the Digital Youth ProjectMacArthur Foundation Report)

Wow, this was pretty slow reading …… and then she realised only pgs 20-28 (the “Messing Around” bit) needed to be read.  Darn it!  Note to self – read instructions carefully!

The most important factors are the availability of technical resources and a context that allows for a degree of freedom and autonomy for self-directed learning and exploration. In contrast to learning that is oriented toward a set, predefined goal, messing around is largely self-directed, and the outcomes of the activity emerge through exploration.

I particularly enjoyed Cindy’s post about her thoughts on this article.  She summed her whole mind-shift with an apology to her kids for continually giving them a hard time about “wasting time on the computer”.  When I ask my students to self-reflect on their learning, the best part is often the ten or so minutes given to “mess around” with a new tool/programme.

I can think of no other more powerful learning time when students “mess around” and then share with each other what they have discovered.  I’ve seen students who don’t normally “shine”, smile from ear to ear when their peers say to them – “wow, that’s cool – I didn’t know that!”

Does it boil down to control?  How much control can you give over to your students?
Can you say – I’m not the expert – and that’s ok – let’s learn from one another.  Are you ready to teach that way?  Are you prepared to give that degree of freedom and autonomy for self-directed learning and exploration?

That’s not to say, that we as educators can take a back seat and let the students do ALL the driving.  A warrant of fitness or a registration is still our responsibility as educators as is the responsibility to provide the real, rich and authentic learning environment for the “messing around” to take place in.

Image Attributions:
Flow and process of learning. – A Churches – Edorigami
Computer Screen Image: ‘untitled‘ http://www.flickr.com/photos/21257461@N05/2994169884 altered by TeachingSagittarian under Creative Commons – flickrCC

I’ve just finished reading Michelle Martin’s latest post, A Week Without Google, on her Bamboo Project Blog.

My heart darn near skipped a beat at the thought of it.  Could you imagine it?  No gmail, gchat, gtalk,  google calendar, google docs, google maps, google search, google earth, google alerts, no blogger, and alas no iGoogle – no google anything!  And this is an actual assignment for Michelle’s daughter to do for her New Media Research class. And her assignment includes no YouTube either!!

Oh my!  Could I do it? Um … NOPE.  Not a chance!  And then it dawned on me just how reliant I’ve become on one company’s products.  I hadn’t meant to, I didn’t do it deliberately and I certainly didn’t realise it – til now.  I can’t think of any other aspect of my life (even financially) where I’ve literally put all my “eggs in one basket.”

How many Google products do you rely on?  All the ones I use religiously (that’s on a day to day basis) are listed in the first paragraph.  I am so dependent on Google. I really need to think seriously about how to manage if Google “went down”  (as she’s frantically touching wood so that doesn’t happen)!  Over the past week our school server has been hit with a virus that no one has the fix for.  Work with the internet in the classroom has all but ground to a halt.  Today my students alternated between reading their books and writing with a pencil while we waited patiently for pages on our blog to load.  At least we had the books and pencils as an alternative.  But that’s my point really.  What alternative do I have for all the google apps I use?

What about you?  Could you go a week without google?  Are all your eggs in one basket too?