Techie Tuesday: Wiki Anyone?

Most teachers and students have heard of Wikipedia, some in controversial circles.  But have you actually taken a look at wikis from an educational perspective?

Close to the same time Web 2.0 was coined, Wikipedia was blossoming into the current 2.5 million articles.  What made this encyclopedia different than any other?  The ability for everyone to collaborate in building it!

How could you use a wiki in your classroom?  Let's start from the beginning.  What is a Wiki? Basically a wiki is a website that uses wiki software.  This software allows you to edit pages in real time.  Wikis are used in a variety of collaborative tools.  For this post we will focus on uses in a classroom.

You can limit wiki membership, so only your students are allowed to add and edit information.  You can also open membership to other classrooms for collaboration.  Wiki's are for the geeky and challenged techie alike.  If you can type in Word, you can have a wiki.

There are so many uses of wikis in the classroom.  What better place to cover wiki information than the collaborative education queen, Vicki Davis aka @coolcatteacher (see below).

Wikis in the Classroom View more presentations from coolcatteacher.

One of my favorite ways to use a wiki in the classroom in as a collaborative "binder".  Previously I referred to this as a notebook, but it is so much more.  Each student has an account and instead of keeping a notebook, they are required to add to the class wiki on a weekly bases.  Each unit has a page, but today they started asking to add additional information such as "Welcome to the Classroom" to help students that enter after school starts, email directions, etc.

It will be interesting to see the changes over the next few weeks.

Here are a few more ideas for wikis in the classroom:

• Class Website


• Writer's Corner


• Research Paper


• Student (or teacher) portfolios


• Project

What is your favorite classroom wiki idea?

Techie Tuesday: Take Your Student's Online

Are you looking for a way to both save time and better meet your students' needs? How about an online classroom?

Better yet, how about a FREE online classroom?

Edu 2.0 could be the answer!   Edu 2.0 is similar to Blackboard or Moodle.  The only difference is that it is 100% FREE and super easy.  You can even create a school site to manage all your teachers and students.  There is a thorough discussion board for help as well as superb one-on-one assistance!



So, what are some of the features?  I'm glad you asked.  Check them out below:

• Class/school calendar which is exportable and all items (lessons, tests, etc) are automatically added to the calendar


• Lesson plans with ability to add files, websites, etc with just a click of a button


• Various Web 2.0 components such as blogs, wikis, collaborative groups, debates, feed, and chat


• Threaded message board


• Various assessment options such as quiz, free form, discussion, survey, and offline.  There are automatic grading options similar to Quia.

With Edu 2.0, students are able to access directions as many times as needed.  They also have access to lessons and resources at school and home.  Teachers are able to save time with auto grading and by having lessons readily accessible for absent students.

Is it time you took your students online?

Have you Diigo'd today?

With the explosion of web 2.0 sites, it is sometimes hard to pick and choose sites most beneficial for you.  When it comes to social bookmarking, Diigo is a great option for not only you but also your students.

Social Bookmarking is replacing our basic web browser bookmark function or "add to favorites".  One problem with the typical bookmark function, is the fact that your bookmarks are saved on that particular computer.  With social bookmarking you are able to access your bookmarks from any computer and there are numerous extra features!

Have you Diigo'd with your students today?

Diigo includes the social bookmarking features found in most services such as one click browser bookmarking, tags, rss feeds, and sharing.  It's the special features of Diigo that makes it stand out over other sites such as del.icio.us and make it particularly useful in the classroom.  These special features include highlighting and adding sticky notes to websites!

How can you use Diigo in the classroom?  First you will want to get familiar with it yourself.   There are numerous tutorials on the web if you would like to get an overview before jumping into Diigo.  During this time you will also want to check on your district technology policies.  Next, you will want to use the basic functions with your students. The following is a possible avenue for introducing Diigo to your class:

• Discuss Internet Safety and Digital Citizenship if not previously covered*


• Send Home Required Contracts*


• Create Student Diigo Accounts: You can apply for an educators Diigo account and create the accounts for your students which is especially important for younger students because you have control of their account, or have them create their own account with parent permission.


• Add Teacher as Friend (as needed)


• Bookmarking and Tags: Walk students through using the Diigo website to bookmark and create tags.


• Sharing: Share a bookmark with your students.  Have them share one with you.  Then have them share one with a peer.


• Diigo Toolbar: Students need to become familiar with the Diigo toolbar or Diigolet depending on your browser.  This might be an item you want to reserve for older students depending on computer access and technology knowledge. If they are not signed into a computer account that only they use, they need to sign out at the end of each class.

Next is the fun part, integrating into your lessons.  Here are just a few ideas:

• Find a website (or two) that are great resources for a unit/lesson and add sticky notes to the websites.  This is a great way to add questions for students to answer and integrate higher order thinking skills.


• Teach students about picking out key information by highlighting it on a website.  Then have them do the same on another site.


• For your next group project, have students share bookmarks for information.  Better yet, pair up with another teacher maybe out of state or country and have those students build resources together for a collaborative project.


• Point out copyright information with the highlighting or sticky note feature.


• Share a great web resource with your students for each unit/lesson by sending them bookmarks.


• When students use online resources for a written project such as a research paper, have them highlight the sections they used in their paper.  Then they can create a list.


• You can also pose a problem or have students take sides of a debate.  Then they collect bookmarks, highlight key points, and add stickies to support their side.

What ideas do you have to Diigo with students? I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!

* It is especially important to make sure students and parents are aware of the potential danger of any online site that incorporates friends, public vs. private accounts, etc.

Sticky Note Image:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/winning-information/ / CC BY 2.0

Tweet, Tweet, ... tweet?

From the blogosphere to the cover of Newsweek, you are bound to have at least heard of Twitter.  You may have even created a twitter account just to find yourself talking to .... yourself and really not understanding the twerrific tweet fascination.

Why are some people's Twitter experience totally different from others?

Let's start first where we ask our students to begin when posed with a question--research. Before you get started in twitterverse, shouldn't you know a bit about it?

I'm a teacher, so I wanted to find out how Twitter could be used in my classroom or to make me a more effective teacher.   I started simple enough by just creating an account and watching the twitterverse from the main Twitter page.  I must admit I wasn't instantly impressed.  There had to be more to the whole "Twitter Phenomenon". How were teachers using this when every other tweet wasn't appropriate for the classroom?

Surely Google could help me out with this one!  I started searching for educational uses for Twitter and realize that my use of Twitter was probably going to be more to build my effectiveness as a teacher and not necessarily as a classroom tool for students.  Now, there aren't any set rules for using Twitter, and this was just how I decided to use Twitter.

One great finding in my research was Twitter Groups.  I was able to easily join a variety of educational groups as well as groups that would help expand my resources for various units such as photography:) Day by day I started having people follow me from the various groups.  Day by day I read through great ideas and resources.  Day by day I continued to research.

One of the best suggestions came from @suewaters  One of her suggestions was to ask one of your favorite tweeters to ask his/her followers to follow you (not her exact words:).  Which also leads me to a great Twitter resource, Sue's Blog.

Twitter has become one of the best ways I have expanded my PLN.  Here are just a few ways I have use Twitter since my first tweet:

• Ask questions


• Hash Tag posts while posting on f2f workshop


• Save favorite tweets


• Attend various meet-ups and PD internationally


• Check out resources


• Answer questions


• Pretend I was attending NECC by following others NECC experience


• Post resources


• LOL


• Search for unit and class resources using "search"


• FOFL (usually @philhart or @johart )


• ReTweet and be ReTweeted


• COLLABORATE


• and my favorite....shared a pic of my boys and 81 yo grandfather climbing a "mountain" hunting for shark teeth in Kansas.  Who would have thought someone in my PLN was actually interested in visiting Kansas?!

So, are you wanting to become a more effective teacher?  Maybe you would like to save hours of searching for the right resources.  Jump into the Twitterverse!

Instruction Manual for the Classroom?

Most parents find themselves at some point wondering, "Why don't kids come with an instruction manual?" Isn't the same true in the classroom.  Imagine knowing before the school year starts:  If you need something addressed immediately,  you need to call Billy's grandfather.  Sara is having a difficult time since the passing of her grandmother, and John will harass her about it.  Jackie loves to draw so if she gets behind offer a class contract for 5 minutes of art at the end of class once her grades are up to a C.

One of the key components of high school reform is relationships.  By adding relationships through the personalization of the high school experience, not only will you decrease dropout, increase attendance, and increase successful course completion, you will also build a positive environment for student, teachers, and parents focused on success of students in real life.  

How do you personalize high school?  Create small school setting such as a Freshman Academy (school within school).  Incorporate Advisory programs where teacher keep the same kids until graduation giving them the opportunity to truly build a relationship with that group of kids.  Listen to the students and offer avenue for school involvement such as adding clubs or additional courses.  Of course the listen can go on and on.

The 2009 - 2010 school year embarks our "official" third year of High School Reform focused on Relationships - Relevance - Rigor. There is a common thread that runs through each conference, study tour, research avenues, speakers, and professional developments.  That common thread is to begin with relationships; It is the building block for all other reform.

Summer 2006 was our jump-start toward high school reform.  A group of thirteen of us traveled to the Model Schools Conference in Washington DC.  We had received a grant that suggested traveling to this conference using grant funds.  At first we were just going to send a small group and spend remaining funds elsewhere, but then we talked with another school who had attended the conference the summer prior.  We set out to take as many as possible and hoped to as much out of it as they did.

Did they give us an educational instruction manual? No, there will never be a one-size-fits-all magic potion that will transform every school.  But it did open our eyes to hundreds of successful practices around the nation and the common thread, relationships.  Of course not all high school reform "officially" falls under the 3R's of Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships.  But after several years of researching high school reform (even prior to summer 2006), it is easy to see that most any school reform can be sorted into these three categories, and the most successful practices are built first on relationships.  These relationships are not just teacher and student.  It is for everyone involved in education:  administration, teacher, students, parents, staff, community.

How have we started to build relationships at our school?

1)  Study Tours
2)  Conferences
3)  Advisory Program (TEAM Tider)
4)  Mentor Program (Minden's Most Wanted)
5)  Freshman Academy
6)  Positive Behavior Support (PBS)
7)  Freshman Orientation
8)  PTO 
9)  Added clubs according to student interest (Nature, Beta, JETS)
10)  Adding courses according to student interest (Mixed Martial Arts, Robotics, Graphic Design and Animation)

We are continuing to "tweak" our reform efforts, but have already had great success which is easily documented in our school data including dropout, referrals, attendance, and pass rates.  Though a lot of our focus has been building relationships, we have also targeted rigor and relevance.  For the 2009 - 2010 school year we are bridging the gap between us and our feeder schools as well as increasing rigor and relevance through project based learning.

Though there will never be a "fit-all" manual, we can build our own manual specific for our school.  What practices have had success outcomes for your school?

Sum-Sum-Summertime

How many summers have you looked back on to say to yourself, "Where did it go?" only to quickly answer yourself, "Work." ? Of course there is always some fun thrown into summer, but too many teachers' summers are gone before they began because this is the one time of year you can actually easily attend PD, catch up on projects from the previous year, and work on new projects for the upcoming year.

I am glad to announce:  Not this summer!  I started the summer leaving town for four days to visit family, vowing only to work on Tuesday's, and committed to finishing house projects before school projects.  I know a few of you are already chuckling and wondering, "So how's that working for you?"

Well upon returning from our trip to the beach (visiting daughter and son-in-law), I decided only Tuesdays wasn't too realistic with all the existing projects pending due dates.  So I quickly changed this to working the month of May and starting "Tuesday Only" in June. Today, Friday, June 5th I returned home from school after 4:00.  Ok, so that isn't working for me yet. But surely I've finished some home projects.  Well not unless you count bringing home paint swatches and purchasing a chair from a consignment shop.

I guess I should be pretty frustrated at this point seeing as I'm entering my third week of summer without sticking to any of my summer plans.  But I'm not. Why?  I'm a teacher, and teachers can't just turn work on and off because it's summertime.  

Sure I love going in late, working from home, and not working full weeks. I love planning for next year to be the best year ever!  I love creating new activities to stretch students' brains as far as they can possibly stretch.  And I love learning even more through my PLN and PD.  I love being a teacher because it is more than a job; it is one of society's vital organs!

Why Let Students Blog?

The ringing in of 2009 also marked my students true endeavor into the world of blogging. Though their first official post, Welcome, wasn't until late in the month of January, we began our blogging adventure several weeks prior.  To say that this adventure has been "everything I imagined" would be an understatement.  Instead this blogging adventure has become more than I could have ever imagined.

Why let students blog?  The list is infinite:  ownership of writing, connection to the world, motivation, authentic audience (not just teacher), multiple learning styles, prepare students for digital citizenship, gallery of class projects, students as teachers, parent connection,....

If you would like a true list of reasons for students to blog, it wouldn't take more that an afternoon of reading blogs to run across everything from the top 20 reasonsto winning a T-shirt:) You can even hear about blogging straight from the mouth of students.  Why did my students start blogging?  I wanted them to be part of social technology outside of myspace.  I wanted them to actually see "outside of the box" outside of their town, their state, and their nation. I wanted them to take ownership in their education.  And I wanted my student from a town of less than 15,000 to see that they truly are part of this world and this world is open to them.  Any classroom can have a great journal with provoking higher order thinking questions, but that journal can't interact with the students, it can't ask questions, and it can't expand students view and knowledge.

Over the last few months, my students have connected with other teachers and students around our nation and around the world.  After earning their blog, they were first introduced to Ann Michaelsen's blog as well as her students. This helped us to start small and "straighten out the kinks" such as internet filters.  This collaboration has earned a post of it's own on a later date, but basically we started with both of our classes posting about their hometown.  The students visited each other's blogs and commented including many questions.  Ms Michelsen's class was learning about American government so my students' next posts were on our government including more detail about levels and branches of government. It has been GREAT! Both of our classes are now participating in Challenge 09, in which we complete various challenges each week.There are over 1000 students from all over the world participating in this challenge.

This post actually is leading up to the week 5 challenge to teachers.Ms. Wyatt is presenting at a conference in July, Blogging Safely in the Big Wide World".  She asked teacher's involved in the challenge to answer the following questions.  I have been wanting to post on blogging for quite some time, and felt it perfect timing to incorporate these questions and responses:

• Why did you choose the blogging platform you are using? I choose Edublogs for our class blogging platform for several reasons.  First would definitely be the fact that everyone on Edublogs seems to be focused on education is some fashion.  I wasn't able to find any blogs on topics that were inappropriate for my students.  Another great safety feature is that there are different levels of blogging.  This gave my students the freedom to create their blogs yet I receive copies of all comments and posts. I also like the gmail shortcut in which I could use my own email address and add a "+#" to the end.  That way none of my student's email addresses were attached to their blog. Our technology coordinator also approved of the site and unblocked it for our freedom of use during school hours.  Last but certainly not least, would be the fact that Edublogs has a tremendously helpful group of people:  James, Dr. Mike, and Sue Waters.  James and Dr. Mike answer all you technical issues and keep everything running smooth.  Oh and fix thing that you mess up;)  Sue is the Edublog educator geru! Her blog is filled with tips, tutorials, and tons of ideas!  No matter which platform you choose, you will find Sue's blog helpful.


• What have you found most easy or difficult in blogging with students? The two hardest things for me would be internet filtering and letting go of perfection.  When we paired up with Ann's class it took alittle over a week to get her blog unblocked.  Then each one of the student blogs had to be individually unblocked (another week).  We thought we were "good to go" until a student tried to post a comment and we found that all the comment pages for each student had to be unblocked:) The other difficulty for me was letting go of perfection.  It was hard to have students post without me correcting their writing.  But I wanted the post to be their writing NOT mine.  So we stuck to the original plan:  They write a post and have a peer check.  If at anytime they have a question or want an opinion, they can ask me.  Otherwise I just hold mini writing workshops at the beginning of "blogging time."  Their writing has improved tremendously over the last few months!  Especially their attention to editing.


• What have you done to make sure your students are blogging safely? We have had several mini workshops on digital citizenship. Students have posted and commented on social and ethical technology issues. One great resource is iSafe. Students post first name last initial only. All accounts were created using teacher email.  Copies of all posts and comments are sent to teacher.


• What do you think students get out of blogging? confidence, digital citizenship, global connection, writing ownership, education ownership, collaboration, .....


• How do you find ways for students to get their global audience? There are thousands of ways to get a global audience.  I choose to stay more within an area I already knew, Sue Water's Blog. She posted a list of classes wishing to connect.  Another thing I feel helped grow our audience was getting involved with twitter.  Several of my "twitter friends" have taken the time to stop by student blogs and comment. Check out our class ClusterMap of global visitors!


• What recommendations would you give to new teachers to blogging? 1)  Get involved in blogging yourself.  2)  Look at numerous teacher and student blogs for ideas. 3)  Have a detailed plan.  Here's my class about blogging info. Ill be adding a page on this during the summer. 4)  Get involved building your own PLN through twitter, nings, etc. 5) Start small

It's hard to put into words the benefits of blogging in my classroom.  The writing element itself is enough to win over an educator.  Just take a look at any student blog and compare their first post to one of their more recent posts.  The same is true about the comments they leave on other blogs.  It has been so easy incorporating other subject matter into my class through the incorporation of blogging.  The students connection to the world would be one of the greatest advantages!

Why did you choose for your students to blog?  What benefits have you seen in your class?