The K-12 Online Conference invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. The 2008 conference theme is “Amplifying Possibilities”. This year’s conference begins with a pre-conference keynote the week of October 13, 2008.
The following two weeks, October 20-24 and October 27-31, forty presentations will be posted online to the conference blog (this website) for participants to download and view. Live Events in the form of three “Fireside Chats” and a culminating “When Night Falls” event will be announced.
Everyone is encouraged to participate in both live events during the conference as well as asynchronous conversations. More information about podcast channels and conference web feeds click here.
Please subscribe to the conference in igoogle/google reader and iTunes.
Feel free to make a comment about any of the sessions that you found intriguing.
See you on Saturday!
Posts
10 comments:
I enjoyed watching “Never Too Young” by Sharon Betts of Maine who highlighted the uses of Voicethread, Dipity and Blogging in the early grades. On the downside, the session did not instruct a user on how to use an application (I was hoping to pick up some VoiceThread tips), but it did a good job explaining the practical uses of Voicethread (cool ap that combines audio-video-text-etc to allow teachers and students to deliver a message), Dipity (online timeliner tool) and blogging in the elementary classroom. I was glad to see that Maria Knee's blog was used as an example of how elementary teachers can integrate technology into the classroom. I was priviledged to have met Maria Knee at the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference last year. She co-taught a hands-on workshop on using an ipod and recorder in education that I attended. She also was awarded the 2007 Technology Award. She is seasoned teacher who is currently teaching Kindergarten in NH!
The session is worth a look if you work in elementary education.
FYI...having trouble subscribing to the K12 conference using my iPod...it is not available via the iTunes store as far as I can see. I have just been keeping up-to-date via my Google reader and the website.
Me again. I checked out
“I Like Delicious Things: An Introduction to Tagging and Folksonomies” by
Chris Betcher (loved the accent!). Again...this was not really a 'how-to' session (I was hoping to learn more about delicious...already use it religiously, but thought there may be more). I have not explored Flickr too deeply (since it was blocked at both schools I have worked at) and was interested to learn that it uses the tagging concept as well. I think Chris did a good job of explaining how tagging works and why it is so pawerful.
Okay, so I finally got the chance to sit down and watch and or listen to a few of the podcasts that caught my eye. I think my favorite so far was the "What Did You Do in School Yesterday, Today and 3 Years Ago?" Just a very simple way of looking at creating and maintaining a digital archive of your own learning. Simple tools and a simple concept -but powerful. Looking forward to the course and more learning/exploring.
Julie,
Interesting -dealing with blocked sites. One of the topics I hope we'll discuss in class. I'm always waging the war between access and people pushing the limits - both students and teachers.
Well, as you know by email, I had severe itunes/ipod/video podcast issues, so I didn't get to see as much as I would have liked :(
On the upside, at one point I did get some of the vodcasts downloaded & was able to watch a little. I too, enjoyed the digital archiving piece (cell phones, mp3 players & digital cameras) and plan to work on encouraging my own kids (and myself) to start keeping a digital archive.
I also listened to the "blogging buddies" and thought it was very creative that they paired 1st graders with pre-service teachers. I definitely see benefits to both parties, but worried about the classroom teacher's comments that she had to read each students blog to them every time there was a posting. I can see that being a big "no way am I getting into this" for some of the peopel I work with. Maybe it would be better suited for slightly older kids, who could already read pretty well for themselves.
I watched a more detailed K12 session in the Prove It category....
“We Like Our Blogging Buddies: The Write Stuff with Blogging Mentors”
This is exactly the way I was hoping to use blogging. I am interested in having 5th grade students write in a blog. I would love to hook up with a high school English teacher and have their students comment on the 5th graders work.
The teachers in this session teach 1st grade and at the university. The university students are learning to be elementary teachers. Reading the 1st graders blogs helped them understand invented spelling and helped them come up with positive comments and constructive criticism. The first graders were given an authentic audience for their writing and a wealth of feedback.
The elementary students were interviewed and it is clear that they enjoyed the program. I wish they interviewed the university students to get their point of view.
These are the notes I took on Wendy Drexler's – Teaching Web 2.0
a. Has a teachweb2.0 wiki (try to find) said she does a lot of open source/free web 2.0
b. Talks about 4 stages of teacher adoption of new tools
i. Awareness
ii. Experimentation
iii. Collaboration w/ others
iv. Initiate own project
c. Talks about goals:
i. research web 2.0,
ii. Identify SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats)
1. Example of blog
a. collaboration
b. postings could be hurtful (teacher may be able to moderate)
iii. Educational applications
Has a huge list of various tools, with reviews, comments, etc. On-going updates. Also can see what others are doing
Talked about “ning”…heard that on other podcasts, so want to learn more about it.
Said she was excited about animoto -> animated audio/videos, now have accounts for teachers, which allow for longer educational movies.
Also mentioned “museum box”, a virtual box. You can put in artifacts, etc. There are examples from teachers & their students….again…want to look at this, to see if it’s anything that I could use.
Her challenge: make a contribution…no matter how small….add a question to a discussion page if just starting out…do more if more experienced. Said if you form a group…include skeptics…they may really help (kind of brings back the whole "change game" thing that we did for last class)
I'm definitely intrigues by what was mentioned in this podcast...need more time to explore the MANY possible tools and ideas for use. I think it could get very overwhelming, so I really like Wendy's idea of just trying something small at first, and letting it go from there.. I think that's about all I can realistically accomplish right now.
Another podcast I listened to was a keynote: Voices of web 2.0 -- leading change can only happen when others believe and then live it.
Some of the interesting comments made by the speaker were:
a. Why are there so many good teachers in bad systems?
b. MIT lab – Life Long Kindergarten – learning is rigorous fun (this really made me think....some of my most fun days at school (or anywhere, for that matter, is when I think I'm playing...not really working too hard.) I LOVE this idea of life long kindergarten (maybe because my room is in the kindergarten hall, or maybe because it's just more fun to "never grow up", and spend time "playing"). Definitely want to float that thought by people I work with. There are a few who I'm pretty sure would be on the same train with me.
He also talked about the Science Leadership Academy, and that we need to create more caring institutions – a child is NOT an indirect object,that we should be teaching students, not subjects. In student-centered schools children feel valued, the learning is theirs.
We learn best when we care about it – so, how can we get kids to ask questions?
Make school about real life, not getting ready for real life.
Certain technologies are transformative:
1. we now have schools as they always were, plus computers
2. in new schools, technology should be like oxygen
a. has to be everywhere
b. just use it
c. when you walk into an office, you don’t talk about the computer on the desk, you talk about the work that’s got to be done…should be the same in schools.
Technology should allow kids to research, create, collaborate, present and network
viii. Role of teacher -> wisdom.
In summary, lots of food for thought....we could have some really good discussions around any one of these topics, if time allowed...online, anyone?
After the presentations that I was able to either see or listen to, all I can say is I want more.
More time to dig into these new tools
More time to play with them
More time to figure out what's going to be best for my staff and students
More time to learn more.
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