School 2.0 in SA

Social media (web 2.0 tools) presents lots of learning and teaching opportunities for the maths/maths literacy teacher. In this workshop presentation for my workshop at the Amesa 2009 congress, on how to use web 2.0 tools in the maths/ mathsliteracy classroom, I explore some of the uses for the classroom. It has been designed as a learning  journey with examples and tutorials for those who want to incorporate and learn how other maths teachers are using social media in their classes and for professional development.

The presentation with animation and links can be downloaded from
http://www.box.net/shared/j4kmpdsgip

The AMESA 2009 congress is upon us once again! It is happening from the 29th June to the 3rd July and the theme is: Mathematical knowledge for teaching. It will be held at  University of the Free State, Bloemfontein and you can find more information at the AMESA webpage (http://www.amesa.org.za/AMESA2009/) This year I will be doing a web 2.0 whirlwind workshop to entice mathematics teachers to use social media tools in their classroom. Here is my workshop abstract, I will load all my workshop links onto a list in Diigo which can be accesses from here: http://tr.im/o0j3

WEB 2.0 TOOLS IN THE CLASSROOM

This workshop will show teachers how to use “FREE and FRIENDLY web 2.0 tools” to engage a new generation of 21st century digital native learners in a more interactive and collaborative way. We will learn how social networking, bookmarking, RSS, podcasts, videos, wikis, blogs and twittering can be used in the classroom to create vibrant and exciting lessons and help us to stay up to date with learning practices and professional development for the 21st century. We will brainstorm some ideas on how to use every tool practically in the classroom, share resources and have discussions on the fly!

MOTIVATION FOR RUNNING WORKSHOP

Our learners grow up in a digitally enabled environment and will be required to use computers and digital media responsibly when they leave our care. We therefore need to learn how to use these tools ourselves in order to support our classroom activities and engage our learners in interactive and meaningful ways. Social media tools encourage

• Group-centred learning
• Project-based learning
• Problem solving
• Inquiry learning
• Collaborative learning
• Experiential learning

These tools can also assist us to stay on top of our subject through learning networks and professional development. We can use it to teach smarter not harder!

DESCRIPTION OF CONTENT OF WORKSHOP:

During the workshop we will register for some of the tools and brainstorm ideas around how to use it practically in the classroom :

• Discuss what web 2.0 tools are and why it is important for us to use it in our classrooms (Tool: Social network (www.mathsliteracy.co.za , www.youtube.com, www.voicethread.com, www.skype.com , www.slideshare.net ).
• Register for a twitter account (Tool: www.twitter.com) and use it to give feedback and ask questions during the workshop. Follow fellow teachers!
• Discuss a given maths/mathsliteracy topic by creating a blog post (Tool a blog: http://mathsliteracy.wordpress.com) and using it to comment and keep track of twitter questions.
• Create a collaborative mindmap (Mindmapping tool: www.bubbl.us ) about a classroom topic and embed some of the mindmaps in the blog.
• Demonstrate what a wiki and RSS are and how to use it. Teachers can then add and change pages. (Tools: www.wetpaint.com, Google reader: http://google.com/reader )
• Subscribe to and use a social bookmarking system to track and store collaborative resources (Tool: www.diigo.com) (20 minutes)

The workshop presentation can be downloaded from here: http://www.box.net/shared/j4kmpdsgip

Comments on the Amesa conference can be found here:
http://mathsliteracy.wordpress.com/2009/07/15/amesa-2009/

I have decided that it is time to take the maths lit teachers into the arena of having REALTIME online meetings. Of cause I went off on a tangent wanting to just throw them into the deep end with some high tech web 2 tools like WizIQ and was then horribly brought down to earth by my ever present friends….bandwidth and dialup.

When I tested my room with a dial-up….well lets say that I had to go back to the drawing board.So I have decided to KISS (keep it simple stupid) and then inserted a little  Cbox chat box into my ML NING network. It is very basic but works quite effectively. We will have to see tonight how effectively. The reason why I decided not to use SKYPE or any of the other Chat agents (IM, Google chat…) is that the last time I tried to have an online meeting, we ended up chatting across 3 different platforms with some of us being relay agents. Chaos. So at least nobody will have to install anything and can just jump in. I do think the teachers will probably be a bit confused with such a small chat window and a myriad of conversations that will probably take place. I expect that it will be a first for most of them.

In combination with the chat window, we will do the resources discussions in a forum next to the chat window (rather asynchronously) but it will be a little more organised and the teachers can then upload their resource for discussion as well. So hold thumbs for me! I will report back on how it went…..If you know any maths lit teachers in South Africa, please tell them about the meeting at:http://www.mathsliteracy.ning.com

Time: 19h00- 21h00 (or there about…..) Time goes past so fast if you talk about maths…