Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

I’ve been a del.icio.us user for a couple of years. I started social bookmarking with Furl and made the switch mostly because of the number of users. Del.icio.us is all about the network. I have almost 1000 bookmarks and I’m sure at least half of them are from my network.  If you’re not currently using the network feature of del.icio.us you’re missing out.

One of the most important feeds I subscribe to is my del.icio.us network. Like twitter I can follow anyone’s bookmarks so daily I receive a feed of bookmarks from the likes of Will Richardson, David Jakes, Jeff Utecht, Wes Fryer and 23 other people (I need to add to that number). If you want add me to your network for example, simply go to your network link at the top of the delicious page and add the user of your choice on the right side of the page. To subscribe to your network page, click the RSS icon at the bottom of the page and you’ll be able to be notified every time your network has added a new bookmark. One more part of my research team. These people are scouring the web looking for the very best, most interesting pieces of content.
There are many other tutorials but I created this one very quickly to demonstrate what you need to do.

Del.icio.us quick tutorial

Today, people like twitter when links are posted. Often this leads to some great discoveries and learning. Del.icio.us has been doing the same thing for a while. Last time I checked only 16 or so were following my bookmarks, I think I’m close to 50 now. More important, I had been stuck on about 23 people that I follow. That’s not near enough.

Go to del.icio.us and start building your team.

Technorati Tags: twitter, delicious, socialbookmarking, network

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Stupid title but that’s what is for me…pure fun.

By chance I happened to be Winnipeg at another conference and was able to invade the MB BloggerCon. The event was casually put together and turned out to be a blast. About 60 people showed up and Andy Mckneil the president of their provincial technology group, organized and paid for the event. (The gave us full use of the bar, free wireless, snacks) Andy also did a great job filming and recording the entire event.  There were 5 unpresentations. I had to stick my big nose into the mix and show off my network. Alec, Jeff and Brian were able to skype in and talk very quickly but clearly, how the network works for them.

I would have liked to connect more with the others but as a guest, I felt the need to lay low. Very cool to meet for the first time Clarence, John and Chris. Nice to see Darren again. It felt like meeting old friends…oh yeah they are.

At any rate, it was great experience and pure fun. Paul Hamilton has remarked a few times about the fun I have with my job. Brian says learning is messy. I say it’s fun.

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Today I did 9 hours of Professional Development. My 60 minute drive began by listening to a great podcast with Jon Udell interviewing Gardner Campbell. Worth a listen. The morning and afternoon I spent showing about 25 teachers how to use Joomla to manage their websites. Pretty traditional PD. Lots of step by step technical support. Necessary but pretty boring. I did get to speak to 100 teachers in Grand Rapids during one of Will’s talks. That was the highlight of my day to that point.

After that I drove an hour south to the tiny community of Bengough where Peter Bell and many of his staff invited me to talk about “things Web 2.0″. I was careful to this to their stories, figure out where they were at and go from there. Peter had bought everyone a webcam and headset (he loves Skype) and so they were quite excited with their shiny new tools. I had no intention but realized I needed to leverage those tools somewhat. So I fired up a Ustream show.

With a quick tweet I had up to 23 viewers (there may have been more but I wasn’t always checking) and some pretty impressive viewers as well. Viewers that added some key stuff. I can’t talk about Professional Learning without showing off and utilizing my network. They have become such a part of who I am professionally. It would be like not talking about my family when in social settings. We use to think it was important to reference people in blogs and workshops. Now we might as well bring them right in. For some reason I did have access to the chat (previous attempts inside my school division blocked the chat portion) and even tried skyping Will and Kristin who both contributed things via Skype chat. I wish I had thought more about including and engaging both the live, newbies and the online vets. There was some chat but I wonder if I could have leveraged it more?

In the end, we built wikis, played with flixn and continued to speak about networks, kids doing more work and teachers being clear on why in the world they would want to spend the time doing all this stuff. The decided to meet again next week, on their own to continue this process. I’ll skype in.

Anyway here’s the video and the chat. (this will definitely be my longest post ever) The chat is interesting in that you can so some simple Math to find out when comments synced with the video. At one point, someone cursed me to which Jeff Utecht replied, “Just ignore them and they usually go away”. I also learned:

• about some cool voicethreads
• I shouldn’t eat in front of the camera
• and yes….I was tired.

The Chat

[17:02:30] : yeah, because now I’m starving.
[17:02:30] : Do a poll, Dean
[17:02:38] : dance for us dean!
[17:02:50] : me too!
[17:02:58] : my staff thinks i am insane
[17:04:14] : instant pd right dean
[17:06:01] : is Twitter just for your personal network? Or do updates get sent out to the whole community?
[17:06:25] : if they are coded with an @
[17:06:36] : You can follow everyone on twitter
[17:06:36] : the entire Twitter website, i mean
[17:06:38] : what do mean by “whole community?”
[17:06:40] : @everybody send to all your twits
[17:06:46] : no?
[17:06:55] : or you can log in and see just your network
[17:06:56] : if you set to show public updates
[17:07:25] : Lost sound on this end. What about you?
[17:07:38] : sound fine for me
[17:07:41] : I can still hear it
[17:07:46] : me too
[17:07:52] : my sound is fine
[17:07:56] : hey cami
[17:08:03] : heyo
[17:08:10] : my macbook is dead
[17:08:13] : no skype
[17:08:19] : I sent you an e-mail about wednesday since your computer died…yeah that’s what I figured
[17:08:25] : ok
[17:08:30] : Lunch???
[17:08:38] : i have a meeting in 20
[17:08:40] : me!!!
[17:08:43] : @will I was going to say….i am pretty sure it’s supper time.
[17:08:47] : Bye everyone
[17:08:48] : me too
[17:08:53] : plane’s finally here
[17:08:53] : pick me! I know what tabbed browsing is!
[17:08:53] : I have 14 tabs open now
[17:08:57] : Bye will
[17:09:02] : have a safe trip
[17:09:03] : bye will
[17:09:03] : bye guys
[17:09:11] : bye
[17:09:14] : I’m not counting- waaaayy over 14
[17:09:15] : Name that window
[17:09:28] : lol @shoemap. Name that window.
[17:09:34] : @lnitsche that is just in one browser
[17:09:38] : tabbed browsing is my lifesaver
[17:10:25] : been there
[17:11:00] : how did you break your macbook Paul?
[17:11:07] : I’m counting 35-36 I need to get this under control
[17:11:09] : tried to do pd on second life
[17:11:20] : me !!!
[17:11:22] : me
[17:11:25] : me three!
[17:11:38] : ha ha not much of a learning curve here today in the chat room
[17:11:41] : my macbook won’t even bootup
[17:11:46] : nope
[17:11:57] : our common everyday tools
[17:12:01] : justkind of fun to know that there still are so many folks that have so much to learn
[17:12:10] : ugh. That is not good about your macbook.
[17:12:14] : i am so mad i am missing out on the glogowski pd in second life
[17:12:17] : grr
[17:12:42] : Glogowski?
[17:12:50] : wrong spelling
[17:12:55] : he’s from toronto
[17:13:10] : thx - where in SL?
[17:13:23] : sorry — missed answering tabbed browsing question — i was busy browsing my tabs!
[17:14:12] : konrad glogowski
[17:14:29] : i have a link on my dead macbook
[17:14:41] : would you like me to smash it in hopes that the link falls out?
[17:14:53] : that way i could share with you
[17:14:58] : I’m going to leave this eatfest and find glog
[17:15:08] : bye
[17:15:14] : talk about wepaint dean!
[17:15:29] : Wetpaint fixes this problem right now
[17:15:46] : everybody gets a color and you can see people’s contributions on the screen
[17:20:10] : don’t talk with your mouth full!!
[17:20:30] : he has forsaken his network members to his pd
[17:21:00] : onhhh flixin is a new resource for me
[17:21:08] : i have used it once
[17:21:10] : flixn is new for me too.
[17:21:11] : it is good stuff
[17:21:18] : i like ustream alot
[17:21:50] : well that’s that
[17:21:57] : nice work dean!
[17:22:08] : his lips are moving but his voice aint there. Share the fries man
[17:22:10] : definitely can’t lipread via ustream.
[17:22:17] : nope
[17:22:27] : good product placement for ice tea
[17:22:28] : 11
[17:22:33] : Paul, do you guys go to Agribition tomorrow?
[17:22:54] : I am having a hard time keeping dates straight with the end of semester approaching
[17:22:54] : yup
[17:22:59] : kids excited?
[17:23:00] : all day
[17:23:01] : yup
[17:23:04] : am i
[17:23:04] : nope
[17:23:05] : Ok I need to get packed for my Thanksgiving trip anyway
[17:23:22] : bye
[17:23:30] : lol. it’ll be fine. my one colleague is getting to go with her class on Wednesday to agribition
[17:23:44] : Haha. I think dean forgot to turn his sound back on
[17:23:49] : not my ideal field trip
[17:24:03] : hes a mind reader
[17:24:26] : There are definitely field trips that are more enjoyable that’s for sure
[17:24:32] : just when I thought I was going to make my escape
[17:24:50] : At least it’s just the day, right?
[17:25:12] : or turn the volume off on ustream
[17:25:12] : yup then bargaining meeting right after
[17:25:33] : Busy you are! What meeting do you have this evening?
[17:25:51] : executive for the RPSTA
[17:25:59] : Ahh
[17:26:08] : still no supper
[17:26:24] : this macbook thing is driving me nuts
[17:26:48] : I can only imagine. And here I’m sitting at my desk with two functionning laptops in front of me
[17:27:00] : im on my dinosaur desktop
[17:27:20] : dinosaur desktop. Oi.
[17:27:52] : gotta go — kids’ bedtime
[17:27:55] : oh hey. I talked to Jean and he said he will come whenever my lesson is being taught next week.
[17:28:09] : So I just have to let him know the time and he will be there.
[17:29:56] : i thought he was there this week
[17:30:24] : nope, next week. he’s coming next week because Trista is at agribition this week and he wants to get both of us done on the same day.
[17:30:37] : ok good to know
[17:30:44] : K. I’m out. Dean I’d love to chat with you sometime. Would be of interest to you I’m sure..
[17:32:03] : Go bombers
[17:33:12] : See you on thursday Dean. Enjoyed the show
[17:34:20] : I would love to experiment with a smartboard some day
[17:39:10] : Hey Kyle
[17:39:26] : Hi Cami. Where are we, what are we?
[17:39:39] : ooops what are we sitting in on
[17:40:35] : we are in a supper PD session in a small town (I cannot for the life of me remember the name) haha
[17:41:28] : my browser shut down halfway through the session so I don’t have the name of the place in my chat history
[17:42:57] : Bengough?
[17:43:13] : sounds about right. I knew it had a G in there somewhere. lol
[17:43:56] : Dean a great use of voicetheread. http://voicethread.com/#u6703.b21279.i120389 got kids to comment on student work
[17:44:01] : http://voicethread.com/#u6703.b21279.i120389
[17:48:35] : thanks Dean. Talk to you later Cami
[17:48:43] : yep. have a good one Kyle
[17:50:42] : I am
[17:50:48] : listening
[17:50:49] : More food
[17:50:52] : got a good tip
[17:50:58] : flixin
[18:01:18] : Dean you look so tired
[18:01:48] : wake up dean
[18:01:56] : have some ice tea
[18:01:58] : Boo
[18:02:32] : good morning jeff
[18:02:33] : who is in the live audience?
[18:02:49] : Good Morning
[18:02:55] : Greetings
[18:02:56] : i can’t hear anything
[18:03:04] : and I can’t log in. dangit
[18:03:04] : How is a Shanghai morning looking?
[18:03:08] : Thanks csouthard for the twit!
[18:03:14] : You’re welcome
[18:03:19] : cold…starting on Friday. 43F right now
[18:03:42] : My parents come to visit in Dec. taking them to Bangkok…can’t wait for the warm!
[18:03:52] : I don’t think he’s watching our chat - b/c he’s taping off of his laptop & presenting off his laptop
[18:04:11] : Snow/Slush in NY late tonight into tomorrow
[18:04:18] : Canadian Praries are the defn of cold. Not Pacific winds keeping it warm
[18:04:39] : it’s chilly in SK tonight.
[18:04:51] : SK?
[18:05:21] : Saskatchewan
[18:05:35] : We’re so global.
[18:05:47] : haha @csouthard it’s true
[18:05:50] : reboot. I have no sound anywhere. fudge.
[18:05:55] : I’m in IL - rainy but about 50
[18:06:04] : I know I have no place to complain…but still would rather be in Bangkok where it’s 80F
[18:06:20] : I agree Jutecht
[18:06:32] : on my wish list to go there - you are lucky
[18:06:50] : Who is Shareski presenting to?
[18:07:08] : Not sure who - but its a wiki presentation
[18:07:10] : I asked too, but didn’t find out
[18:07:28] : I came in late - I missed the intro
[18:07:57] : it’s a PD session in Bengough Saskatchewan
[18:08:12] : talking about all things web 2.0
[18:08:39] : What is your favorite web 2.0 tool?
[18:08:39] : California was sunny and about 80 degrees today
[18:08:51] : OC to be exact
[18:09:01] : nice
[18:09:23] : I’m off to AZ on Wed - heard it will be in the 70’s-80-s during the day
[18:09:46] : my favorite web 2.0 tool is twitter
[18:10:07] : I’m not sure I can pick just one favorite web 2.0 tool
[18:10:18] : I like to use wikis to tie a lot together without HTML (with the kids)
[18:10:18] : voicethread
[18:10:21] : It’s gonna be cold tonite in the OC …about 65 degrees
[18:10:41] : If web 2.0 is about linking content
[18:10:41] : thanks for inviting us in - night
[18:10:43] : I like voicethread too
[18:10:48] : I still think a blog does it best
[18:10:50] : or morning to you jeff
[18:11:00] : Our students love blogs
[18:11:02] : personal, connected, conversations
[18:11:07] : How much is twitter?
[18:11:12] : twitter is free
[18:11:18] : Blog does do it best but voicethread adds a voice and picture that kids can easily use
[18:11:20] : Good morning fsinfo
[18:11:24] : Is it easy to set up?
[18:11:34] : super easy to set up. and such a great tool.
[18:11:40] : www.twitter.com
[18:11:42] : We embeded podcasts into our blogs
[18:11:44] : thanks
[18:11:53] : no problem @yep
[18:11:57] : 20238 agree with voicethread just had an IB art teacher use it..great tool
[18:12:22] : @jutect I saw that voicethread stuff that the IB teacher did. Amazing stuff!
[18:12:29] : http://voicethread.com/#u6703 easy use in class use
[18:12:48] : I subscribe to your blog jutecht - Saw it this morning
[18:12:49] :
[18:12:49] : Yeah blogs allow so much embed audio, video, links, images
[18:12:52] : I’ve just started blogs with sixth grade math. Will intro blogs with 1001 Flat Tales in Jan to seventh and eighth
[18:13:00] : Thanks csouthard
[18:13:07] : hey everybody. finally remembered my pword for this page
[18:13:15] : You might have some fifth graders commenting - if that is okay
[18:13:22] : That’s perfect
[18:13:36] : http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=88116 <—- Our blog site
[18:13:42] : You can see all the blogs at my school here
[18:13:45] : www.saschinaonline.org
[18:13:51] : teachers and students 4-12 grade
[18:14:20] : I’m a co-teacher, so I say “we” and “our” a lot
[18:14:29] : http://www.classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=101050 <— ours
[18:14:35] : are these 5th grade blogs?
[18:14:57] : who the is this nerd
[18:15:04] : yo u ugly
[18:15:14] : go read a book
[18:15:15] : wow
[18:15:15] : loser
[18:15:26] : books are so outdated
[18:15:27] : o ur cool
[18:15:29] : go read a kindle
[18:15:35] : We have a fifth grader in the room?
[18:15:35] : what is this retard doing
[18:15:38] : lol @sroustan
[18:15:39] : showing off for the cam
[18:16:20] : I’m always amazed at the people who come into these rooms and try so hard to be cool but just annoy everybody
[18:16:49] : @csouthard I sent your link to my 5th grade teachers
[18:16:56] : eh. i just think it makes it more fun.
[18:17:02] : Super
[18:17:15] : to annoy those who are annoying, that is. at least, in my geeky mind.
[18:17:22] : just joining - what’s dean presenting about?
[18:17:37] : Just ignore them and they usually go away.
[18:17:41] : Hi Karen - Web 2.0
[18:17:47] : @karen wikis at the moment
[18:17:52] : thanks!
[18:18:14] : @jutecht - loved the voice thread and youtube videos you posted in your blog!
[18:18:42] : Thanks…teachers here are really strating to get into it
[18:18:43] : he looks puzzled
[18:18:53] : very
[18:18:53] : Great conversations too! Which is what we need
[18:18:59] : haha it’s not the first time he’s had that puzzled look on his face
[18:19:17] : Drink some water Dean…you sure earned it
[18:19:21] : love his expressions!
[18:19:41] : oh he’s reading twitter
[18:19:47] : Does anyone know is the chat archived?
[18:20:02] : i think so @jutecht
[18:20:04] : @jutecht, it was also great that your students wanted to do the best job since they knew they were going viral
[18:20:04] : I need that twitter
[18:20:25] : yeah you do, @yep. it is my favorite tech tool
[18:20:33] : @Karen the power of the Internet..they get it!
[18:20:38] : @yep, agree with sroustan it’s a great thing to have.
[18:21:02] : control v it!
[18:21:07] : not sure it’s my absolute favorite tech tool, but it’s definitely up there on my list.
[18:21:18] : These last three hours in Dean’s presentation have been quite interesting.
[18:21:26] : I can’t see where the chat is archived in ustream
[18:21:31] : @lizdavis - looked for you at MassCUE last thursday, were you still there?
[18:21:35] : You’ve been here for 3 hours?
[18:21:37] : Is he getting paid for this
[18:21:37] : How long has he been presenting?
[18:21:47] : @liz didn’t you say you were going out for ice cream?
[18:21:59] : He’s getting paid? Then I don’t feel bad
[18:22:15] : @karen I presented on Wednesday sorry I missed you
[18:22:16] : @csouthard yep, been here since the very get go of the presentation which was about three hours ago. I love being a university student with a free evening to learn from the magnificent dean shareski
[18:22:27] : Ice cream is delicious!
[18:22:40] : anyone going to Philly for the edubloggercon with chris lehmann?
[18:22:43] : Dedication points to you cmalbeuf
[18:22:51] : I’m at work and now not getting anything done
[18:22:53] : @karen i want to
[18:23:02] : cmalbeuf - what are you studying?
[18:23:02] : @Karen - I’d like to
[18:23:08] : @karen Yes!!!! Can’y wait!
[18:23:10] : but no money to travel +poor teacher = no go
[18:23:12] : thanks Jeff! lol. I’m a preservice teacher so I love these things. I’m the only person in my program who is nerdy enough to do things like this
[18:23:32] : @cmalbeuf we need nerdy teachers!
[18:23:32] : maybe i should get these google ads embedded on my blog
[18:23:39] : @cmalbeuf - That’s super! More power 2 u
[18:23:48] : @Karen I’m a third year teacher in the french education program at the u of Regina in Saskatchewan
[18:23:50] : @cmalbeuf i always was, too
[18:23:51] : I wish my last student teacher had that stamina
[18:23:57] : third year student haha.
[18:23:58] : shared Jott with two of my daughters friends yesterday - they only know facebook and loved Jott (they are 23, relate everything to Facebook)
[18:24:03] : I couldn’t even get her to google fifth grade curriclum
[18:24:03] : lol @csouthard me too
[18:24:09] : typing with one hand ice cream in the other
[18:24:13] : When did the @ become so popular is that twitters doing?
[18:24:24] : I love the @ thing
[18:24:26] : @jutecht i think so. habit now, i guess
[18:24:27] : yes!
[18:24:30] : LOL
[18:24:30] : me too
[18:24:36] : haha I think so jutect. Like @sroustan said, it’s habit.
[18:24:42] : Did you see the link someone sent about twitter on CSI
[18:24:50] : no
[18:24:50] : @csouthard I love technology. I love being dedicated to my pd.
[18:24:51] : so twitter is a good habit
[18:24:53] : no
[18:25:01] : I almost sent an e-mail to a parent with the @
[18:25:04] : @yep yes i think so
[18:25:07] : LOL
[18:25:08] : lol
[18:25:09] : You have to be careful where you use it
[18:25:10] : @cs LOL!
[18:25:15] : @jutecht I did see that! It was funny seeing twitter on csi
[18:25:22] : @jutecht what about CSI and twitter?
[18:25:27] : Really?!
[18:25:44] : Twitter on tv?
[18:25:46] : Here’s the YT of twitter on CSI
[18:25:49] : http://youtube.com/watch?v=YT5yCnEr8kQ
[18:25:51] : where is Dean?
[18:26:00] : i was telling some of my colleagues about ustream today, and they think i am SUCH a dork now
[18:26:07] : Nice green shirt Dean
[18:26:12] : they don’t know what they are missing!
[18:26:22] : Dean is in bengough saskatchewan
[18:26:22] : yep
[18:26:29] : This is called a low angle shot in TV/Video language
[18:26:30] : I think we need to discuss ustream protocol
[18:26:31] : I’m trying to get our 5th grade teachers to use it
[18:26:35] : about where you can stand
[18:26:38] : great connection tonight, sometimes ustream fades in and out
[18:26:42] : lol
[18:26:54] : wow - that’s a great shirt. and flying hands
[18:26:54] : We had to do it with skype and our students
[18:26:57] : thanks @cmalbeuf
[18:27:07] : yep
[18:27:14] : OK…I have to get some work done
[18:27:22] : if he was a woman, and pregnant, this would be a great baby shot
[18:27:24] : have a parent preso tomorrow on Internet Safety…ug
[18:27:28] : bye @jutecht
[18:27:33] : aok - check you later jutecht
[18:27:36] : have fun with that1
[18:27:36] : bye @jutecht have a great day!
[18:27:40] : Later everyone thanks for the conversation!
[18:27:41] : have fun with that @jutecht.
[18:27:42] : bye
[18:27:50] :
[18:27:54] : Going to watch Heros
[18:28:14] : Heroes
[18:28:16] : Should I ustream my students Thanksgiving feast tomorrow? We are BBQing Turkey and having all the authentic foods they really had at 1st Thanksgiving per student’s research.
[18:28:20] : never got into that show @liz
[18:28:44] : Journey Man is even better
[18:28:44] : Ok I’m a TV person too
[18:28:44] : @Brian - that would be super!
[18:28:46] : @Brian - ask your students what they think
[18:28:47] : @briancrosby absolutely! how cool!
[18:29:08] : @Brian you will make us all hungry
[18:29:09] : You just have to watch out for punks who show up in the chat
[18:29:12] : it would be cool that their parents can watch it and they can watch it later
[18:29:14] : @brian do you get ustream at school? all streaming media is blocked for us
[18:29:18] : How do you BBQ a turkey?
[18:29:40] : special way?
[18:29:41] : We’ve had a few drop in earlier. Unless, can you make a ustream private?
[18:29:56] : who is byndpdcstng in twitter?
[18:29:59] : @sroustan - so far my school district doesn’t block sssssshhhhhhh!
[18:30:09] : We won’t tell
[18:30:18] : @karen that’s me
[18:30:37] : Welcome @sroustan
[18:30:38] : thanks - tried to make the connection @croustan - your twit got mehere
[18:30:51] : @lizbdavis - took my Weber grill to school today so it is ready for tomorrow. Have done this before.
[18:30:54] : @brian i won’t tell. will richardson was in district today, and we’re hoping that maybe - just maybe - the district will figure out it isn’t all scary
[18:31:15] : Behold - the power of Twitter
[18:31:17] : do you know how hard it is to type your twitter name with no vowels? i have to really think about it when I type it
[18:31:22] : @Brian - I would definitely take video
[18:31:24] : lol sorry
[18:31:30] : Wouldn’t it be funny if they blocked U-Stream, but still let you BBQ a turkey. Which is more dangerous?
[18:31:30] : there was a character limit
[18:31:46] : lol in my district - that could be a toss-up
[18:31:56] : My kids will blog about experience too.
[18:31:58] : @liz - great question
[18:32:32] : Have to get fire dept. to give OK - they always do.
[18:32:57] : Happy to know there is some “moderation”
[18:33:03] : Hi Dean
[18:33:33] : @liz - i don’t think he has the ustream chat
[18:33:53] : Too bad - I guess it would be distracting
[18:33:59] : @Karen he does have the chat, he didn’t think he did in the beginning, but he does
[18:34:04] : Hi Dean - haven’t heard back from teachers you had me contact about blogging!
[18:34:15] : h…haven’t been checking the chat
[18:34:33] : ok, i heard him say he didn’t have but that was hours ago
[18:34:37] : wish I could save it….If I click embed chat owuld that work?
[18:34:40] : Welcome - it’s been busy in here
[18:34:46] : I think I win a prize Dean….Definitely have been the only person here since the getgo. talk about dedication
[18:34:49] : haha
[18:34:49] : @Karen have you been here for hours?

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I’ve written about commpost rating a couple of times. It’s my own made up term to calculate the ratio of posts to comments. Not comments on your blog but comments you make on others. You need some type of tracking software, in my case it’s CoComment which by the way has been working better as of late espescially in terms of my RSS feeds. How else do you track conversations you’re interested in? Don’t tell me you just leave a comment and then never return? Anyway….

So I started in January with this:

• 99/140 =0.71  Meaning I wrote more than I commented

August

• 155/107=1.45 Getting better trying to reach my goal of 2 to 1.
  

Today

• 94/48=1.96

So as of August I’ve been commenting almost 2 times to every posts I make. Admittedly I’m boasting but in my discussions with teachers about sustainability and building networks, this practice is critical. You will never create a global audience but sitting on your hands and waiting for the world to drop in on your work. I can’t think of a short cut around this. If you want a friend, you have to be a friend. If you want a network, you have to be part of the network and commenting and contributing to other’s work is the best way.

I’m not sure how or what Stephen Downes uses to track his comments if he does at all, but I continually see his name in many conversations outside his own blog. He understands networks.  I have an amazing network but it’s not by luck  or chance. I’ve had to work at it. If I expect to get a response and support from my network, I’ve got to do the same for my network.

If you’re still wondering how to build a network, there aren’t many shortcuts. Start commenting….seriously. What is your commpost rating?

Technorati Tags: comments, stephendownes, blogs, commpost

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This morning I worked with Grade 5 and 6 students who all have a tablet PC.  I’ve been talking to them about building networks and wanted to demonstrate mine in meaningful, fun, engaging way.

So I decided to take them on a tour, using some interactive maps and showed them the power of networks, open API (don’t worry I didn’t actually use that term) and personalized learning.

At 9:17 local time I sent out a tweet looking for help. In 2 hours we managed to talk with 10 different people from mostly North America, save for Jeff Utecht who was in Malaysia at a conference.  We got to have a brief chat with each one, found out a little bit about them and even asked one or two intelligent questions.   Using Community Walk (as you can see my community is not walkable) we created placemarks and I added some video snapshots as well.

Here’s the map we created on the fly.

Wedding map to share with guests
CommunityWalk Map - Skype Me

Kids were amazingly focused, running around the room helping each other, teacher laptop in hand right beside her students asking questions, looking like a learner herself, talking to people who help me learn. The students were customizing their maps and adding items of personal relevance and also making connections to the activities and whereabouts of the various guests.

A pretty cool morning.

Technorati Tags: avonlea, prairiesouth, jeffutecht, tinasteele, sharonpeters, barrydahl, paulhamilton, jeffboulton, jamesohagan, brianmull, susanmorgan

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A local principal told me today she had to suspend 20 students from computer privileges for inappropriate use of school computers. Primarily Facebook. Specifically some of these students were engaging with bullying others socializing. She also suggested most of these student’s parents do not understand the implications of their actions, let alone what facebook is or does.

While my initial reaction was to suggest alternate ways to handle the socializing, the bullying of course raises another issue. She did ask our IT guys to considering blocking Facebook. He was not prepared to make that call. We discussed it later and would certainly like to pursue educational opportunities.

I quickly fired up a tweet and received this responses(for those that do not understand twitter, it only allows 140 characters, thus the IMspeak) :

• cburell @shareski I’d be interested to read a post about that. If they violate AUP, how is it different from any other misbehavior?
• Durff @shareski I would revoke until they had passed bullying curriculum and parental meeting…then when they graduate from tha
• kwhobbes @shareski get them to explore the effects of bullying - do some interviews with people bullied, look at bullying in the media, seek out info
• kwhobbes @shareski work with them on the issue - on their own time. As for the socializing, isn’t that WHY most kids come to school?
• cathyjo @shareski where else but at school in safe env can kids learn to use FB & MS SN sites. Banning not the anser IMHO. Thy’ll jst do it @ hme.
• courosa @shareski: Bullying is against the law in jurisdictions, so let the law deal with, at the same time, let’s educate them, design a program.
• briangrenier @shareski Take away their Math books! No that doesn’t make sense either. Have them create and post a digital anti-bullying ad.
• lucychili @shareski the medium is not the message/problem
• duckie @shareski teachable moment -can they regain their privileges?I’m not to concerned about the social part just the bully part
• plivings @shareski - bullying .and. socialize - these 2 things should be separate and have separate responses imo
• mctoonish @shareski If it was just to socialize I would argue that that could be a part of learning. The bullying part changes everything IMO

All great responses and once again, the value of the network is evident. (For those still not convinced twitter has merit, how else would you get this type of response so fast? Grant it, these are bursts of support but still they are helpful to me) Definitely these are 2 separate issues and honestly I didn’t get all the details so I’m not sure how the students were dealt with individually. The information given by the principal was limited as this was not the intent of our conversation. But I’m trying to develop a response to this for future reference.

The cyberbullying one for me is almost the easier one to deal with. Part education, part consequence, part responsibility. This may involve the law as Alec suggests but certainly requires a well thought out response. The socialization one is the tough one. As Kelly writes, that’s why they come to school. I’ve talked with our administrators and teachers about social learning and its importance. I’m sure most don’t consider the use of tools like IM and Facebook to be a part of formal social learning. The problem is the lines between personal, professional and educational socialization is blurring. Twitter for example, combines the personal and the professional as well as any tool. Even bloggers get personal from time to time and that’s a good thing. Good teachers have always understood this but today we are more compelled to figure this out. I remember spending classtime talking about their personal issues be it sports, or the current event of the day that impacted them. I also recognized that as students worked together, they would engage in conversation not directly related to the work they were doing. And yes, they got off track and had to be drawn back to focus on the task at hand. But I could never think I could eliminate their efforts to socialize.

We have to consider how to provide learning environments where students can learn and socialize at the same time. As we move to a more personalized learning model it only makes sense. How we do this and how we help teachers get comfortable with this is a challenging task. Obviously, many are not ready to shift to personalized learning. But if we continue to ban these tools be it via filtering or simply classroom rules, we perpetuate the notion of irrelevant learning.

What does a learning environment look like where students can use things like IM or Facebook or text messaging in both an educational and social context?

[tags]facebook,contentfiltering,twitter,school,education[/tags]

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Driving home from this conference, I couldn’t resist the opportunity to reflect. Some people just think about conferences and learning, I record them. There might even be some ideas in here worth listening to.

Show notes:

• Finding Our Way: Assessment Evaluation & Accountability
• unconference
• open space technology
• K12 online
• Andy Hargreaves
• My notes on Hargreaves talk
• Learning 2.0 in Shanghai
• Jeff Utecht
• Wes Fryer’s recordings
• Joanne Quinn
• OISE
• Konrad Glogowski
• Mark Ahlness
• Clarence Fisher
• Walled gardens
• Miguel Guhlin
• Just the facts

[tags]conferences, networks[/tags]

 

 Conferences Aren't working for me: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ewan’s mom is pretty cool. Not only a blogger, grandmother and former educator but one who understands connections. I remember Anne Davis blogging a while back about hooking up with Ewan’s Mom in San Francisco. I remember reading it at the time and thinking, this is pretty cool and serendipitous. Here Anne, travels to San Francisco, when Ewan, from Scotland sets up a meeting between Anne and his Mom, or is it Mum?, who, also from Scotland happens to be in S.F. Wild stuff.

Mrs. Mcintosh (don’t know her so I can’t call her Chris) blogs about how technology is enabling connections like never before.

But isn’t Skype wonderful? And aren’t computers just the bizz? So this post is for all the saddoes out there who think people don’t interact if they’re stuck in front of computers.

Fortunately, I’m feeling more and more like teachers and schools are getting this. At least the ones I work with. Today I showed a small gathering of teachers what kinds of connections are possible and why they’re important. I brought Kathy and Sophie with me to show off their good work and experience/journey into connected learning. Fewer questions like, “Aren’t you worried about publishing kids work?” and “Aren’t kids spending too much time online?”. They are seeing the power and urgency of getting connected. Our conversations and goals are focused on helping students develop audience and learning networks.

It won’t be long before Catriona will be calling Grandma asking her for a visit.