Monday, March 9, 2009

Techie Tuesday: 31 Day Challenge Days 20 - 23

Anyone up to a challenge?  How about two?

I've been slowly working my way through the original 31 Day Challenge by Darren Rowse. It is hard to believe there are only 7 more challenges remaining.  As you read in my last post, my class and I joined another challenge - 2009 Blogging Challenge.  This post is actually a reflection on my 31 Day Challenge, but if you are looking for some blogging fun or maybe you would like to just improve your skills, there is still time to join both challenges. 

My last post actually summarizes and reflects on my reader survey for day 20. Throughout this challenge Ive been discussion various things with my PLN. Some of those are readers. The 31 day challenge has been a great kick start to getting readers:) For day 20,  I revisited a survey I conducted awhile back on web 2.0 and wrote a post on the results last week. I will definitely come back to this at a later date and run more surveys. I used poll daddy and it was very quick and easy.  Day 21's challenge asked us to make someone famous, like I have that ability :) lol.  I did include @ccroad in my last post and asked readers to add her to their twitter.  

I really enjoyed day 22's challenge to make readers aware of my blog basics.  There were several topic to choose from and I basically choose to cover the creation of my blog and it's purpose.  This is a great reflection to do regularly!  I am actually still working on day 23 in which we were suppose to go on a dead links hunt. I used the one Sue suggested, W3C link checker. I am still checking links. It did find categories that I had made when creating the blog, but didn't actually use.  This is a great resource.  After I finish the blog, I will be checking out our school website for deadlinks!

So are you ready for a challenge?  If so, here are two for you to consider:

1)  31 Day Challenge  

wiki:  http://31daychallenge.wikispaces.com
contact:  Mrs. D  tidertechie@gmail.com

2)  2009 Challenge

blog:   http://wyatt67.edublogs.org/2009-all-the-challenges-in-one-spot/
contact: Miss Wyatt  tasteach56@gmail.com
Posted by Mrs. D at 12:37 PM 0 comments
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Reflecting About Tidertechie



My students and I are working through the 2009 Blogging Challenge.  Last week's challenge was to work on our "about page."  I'm sure this gives a few of my readers chuckles as I am also working through the 31 Day Challenge with several of my PLN friends and have already completed this task once.  Isn't it funny that you can be given the same task in a short amount of time and still find needed improvements? The experience was especially fun with all the students' inputs.  Actually as I write this I keep thinking of a couple "about page" changes I haven't yet completed.


 
Last week's class challenge along with day 22 in the 31 day challenge has me reflecting on my overall blog. I started this blog as an extension of my classroom website to bring in more interactive elements.  The process seemed grueling at first not because of the blog itself, but instead the red tape to get the site unblocked for use at school.  I can honestly say I had an entirely different outlook trying to add this element back in November versus in years past.  In the past after one (or maybe two) attempts to get something unblocked I would move on to another avenue that would be "good enough".  This time was different.  If they wouldn't unblock it, I would just give my students a weekly blog assignment.            

 
Yes, I realize that many students don't have computers at home, but this would give them 7 days in which to complete the relatively short weekly assignment.  We are in a small town with a community center and library within walking distance of many homes.  I also talked my husband into my "much needed" iphone. Thus if a student couldn't use the resources, they could just use my phone internet to read and post comments.  During January and February, the phone actually came in handy with our connection to Ms. Michaelson's Norway class.  It took over a month to get the class as well as the individual student's blogs unblocked.  Then I had to request the comment page for each student:)

 
Why a new attitude?  First was my "get out of the box" moment when I decided to  get involved with web 2.0 elements even if I couldn't incorporate them into my class because of internet filter limits.  Next, as I became more involved in web 2.0 elements such as twitter and meet up sessions with people from around the globe, I truly understood that my student's were being left behind.  

 
When I first started to design the blog, I had trouble deciding what to include.  I wanted the blog to be just that, a blog.  So I started by revamping our class website.  I striped it down to the basics.  Then I started on the blog.  I decided to record the process through "creating a class blog" posts. Ok, this posting thing is pretty cool, so I quickly decided I would not only use posting for my student information but also for various personal interest in education.  My personal posts (as well as many others) have become great post examples for my students.  Though I don't post as often as I would like, I know this will change during the summer!  

 
 The students started by learning about blogs We used the blog daily for assignments.  Then, they each had the opportunity to earn their own blog. The addition of student blogs was definately a highlight to our class blog. We actually change to a Web Design course this week, so I hope we will even have more time for the blogs in the upcoming two weeks.

 
If you would like to follow our blogging adventure, click the apple rss feed icon on the top right of the page.  To learn more about rss feeds, including setting up your own igoogle page, see Sue Water's post.
Posted by Mrs. D at 4:43 AM 4 comments
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Monday, March 2, 2009

Techie Tuesday: All Aboard? Survey Results

Towards the end of January, I wrote an All Aboard? post asking for opinions on helping other teachers "see the power" of learning more about web 2.0 and creating their own PLN.  This post included a Poll Daddy survey of the following:

  • Where would you suggest a teacher get involved first?

  • What is your favorite PLN or Web 2.0 website for newcomers?

  • What web 2.0 tools should a teacher not be without?

  • List an activity you would include in a workshop for teachers.


Are you ready for the results?

Some interesting facts about this survey include the fact that all of the respondents took a little over 6 minutes to complete the survey and represented at least 5-8 countries.  The exact number of countries can't be determined because three respondents were listed as an unknown location.

Here is the breakdown of the results:

  • Where would you suggest a teacher get involved first?

    • Workshop x 3

    • Twitter x3

    • Other x 4

    • Blog

    • Forum



  • What is your favorite PLN or Web 2.0 website for newcomers?


  • What web 2.0 tools should a teacher not be without?


  • List an activity you would include in a workshop for teachers. For these responses, I copied their ideas below.

    • Activity 1:  Pass out or take out your digital camera. Ask participants to form into small groups and give them a simple photography assignment. Give them fifteen minutes to go take the photos and then report back. I've done this, you can't get them back in the room! They laugh, they have fun, they run all over (we took over the hotel lobby where I was doing the workshop!) and they learn how energizing, interactive and useful it can be to use digital photography and visual literacy in the classroom.

    • Activity 2:  Voicethread...learn how to develop one and try it out with students. Share it with parents.

    • Activity 3:  Create and add to a collaborative wiki. (suggested by two survey participants)

    • Activity 4:  I have never done this, but I just think it is the greatest idea.  I can't remember where I learned it from- giving out your twitter name and mobilenumber and getting delegates to text your twitter account with instant feedback throughout the day.

    • Activity 5:  Start a blog with a local topic flavour.  Get them to begin posting and commenting before they leave. Then show them examples of educational blogs that are in use.

    • Activity 6:  Live interaction with others worldwide - eg through Twitter, Skype or virtual room

    • Activity 7:  Use blogs and wikis for teaching

    • Activity 8:  I would literally walk participants through setting up a blog and writing a post so that they could see how easy it is.

    • Activity 9:  Voicethread - find up to 3 images (use creative commons search if that doesn't make it too difficult) and use it to describe a belief that you have about how students learn. Include text and voice recording. Invite someone in the room to make a comment on your voicethread. (Or, a small group could create a joint Voicethread of their main beliefs.)

    • Activity 10:  Form small 'creative clusters' so that people join with a friend or two to practice something new like Delicious or Google Docs. The biggest impact activity we have done recently is to Skype in another educator to join the chat.

    • Activity 11:  Just Tweet:)




    What does this tell me?

    First, I want to visit some of these sites that I haven't incorporated.  I have checked out a few, and they were blocked by our Smartfilter:( Second, I should have found a way to incorporate "other" with a place to type the "other".  I wonder if those three people in question on were referring to the same great place, and I just missed out on it.

    I'm really glad that "workshop" was one of the desired methods to lure other teachers.  We have one this summer and I hope it is met with a great response. I'm trying to get a few twitters out of the faculty before school lets out.  We have one so far, @ccroad.  She hasn't had time to see it's full potential yet, so drop her a line or two, and a follow.



    Lastly, I am extremely thrilled with the fact that the results show that I am on the right track with web 2.0 integration!  To think, this journey really just started in November.  The activity ideas are great, and will be implemented in same fashion.

    Was anyone surprised by del.icio.us ranking as one of the favorite web 2.0 site, but Diigo didn't?  I am a Diigo user, so I would like to know if I'm missing something by not using del.icio.us.

Posted by Mrs. D at 10:15 AM 8 comments
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