School 2.0 in SA

Today I am giving a talk at the Education week on using social media in education. I will be using my learning communities (that is all of you) as casestudies.

My metaphor that I have chosen for the occation is the burning of books. Most of the teachers, officials and curriculum advisors present at the talk will propably not be able to access any of the wonderful tools that I will be presenting. Most social media is banned by the departments and are blocked by the school firewalls, hence the metaphor in the title of my talk. It would be great if everybody can join me online at 04h30-5h30pm (GMT+2) to help change the policy makers and firewall guardians tho will be present’s mindsets about opening social media for teaching and learning and inspire them with what you are doing in your classroom.

Please squizz through the presentation and tweet me @maggiev or @ariellah (my wonderful backchannel asssistant) with thoughts about the tools and challenges you face in using these tools to support your learners. If you add #edweek09 to your tweet we should be able to track it on the big screen. So come and say hallo to the teachers here in Johannesburg and join in the conversation. Please feel free to leave  messages here on my blog, or via a tweet during, before the time if you are in a different timezone.

0001 Blog Twit Workshop Summary

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 am busy putting the finishing touches to my chapter on how social media tools help us to not to only communicate but become lifelong learners, when I was passed (via my twitter network) a link to a new platform that allows you to create blog communities called blog.mu. I went to investigate it as I am planning to start another one of my blogging drives for teachers. I also immediately bookmarked my “find”  for future reference using my  Diigo button, which also passed it on to my twitter network.

After a quick investigation (after all I have to finish my chapter by Wednesday) I discovered that it was run using a Wordpress engine and it reminded me a lot of my Edublog system (A blogging platform for teachers). I twittered this as I thought that it would give people more info on my “find”. As always, my network is listening in the background, and Sue Waters, who has always supported me on Edublogs, asked me if she could give me a live walkthrough (tutorial) on the spot, using Elluminate. Now how is that for on demand learning?

So using Twitter, we quickly organised a time and a place (6 hours time difference) to have an impromptu online workshop about blogging, and the difference between Edublogs Campus and the new tool Blog.mu. So basically, learning has become boundary-less and instantaneous on a global scale in a flat world! And then people still say that Twitter is a silly little hyped tool….Eaash!

So everybody is invited! Sue will be running it in Elluminate on thursday at 2pm South African time (8pm her time: GMT+8)  Mark your calenders and remember to tune in. If you will be joining us from your school, remember to check that you have access and that Elluminate is not blocked by school firewalls.

Here is a quick walk through on how to get in:

• Go to http://bit.ly/Wpwe6
• Enter your name and click on Login
• Tick “Open with Java…”  –> OK
• It will download and install the Elluminate application (Make sure that your school tech support is on standby or test it before the time)
• A security message will ask you if you want to run the application- choose RUN
• A little window will come up asking you about your connection speed
• Thee meeting room will apear with a little helpscreen on how to use the meeting room. But we will be there to guide and help you as well!!!
• You are welcome to log in before the time to give it a spin.

So see you there!!! And spread the news. Don’t forget to twitter it to your networks as well.

Paul de Wet from Michael House was sponsored by Casio to come and do a workshop with the maths/literacy teachers on how to create stunning assessment tasks using Word 2003, Autograph, Geometers Sketchpad, Mathtype and the stunning Casio emulator.

As quite a few of the mathematical literacy teachers where in Durban for the Maths lit IEB conference I did a tweet summary of his presentation and propably killed my entire twitter network with all my tweets which must have been very irritating for my non-maths twitter followers. Next time I promise not to be so cruel and have learnt from Frznguru that I could use Chatzy to create a backchannel chatroom to do this kind of thing. The good thing about using Twitter is that those “listening in” helped me to get other information and the maths teachers said that they did learn a few new tricks. So Paul, your passion was extended on a global scale (give or take the few people that I drove crazy).

The feed for the session can be found here using the hashtag #casiowshop. Tweets are stored in  reverse chronological order – so read them from old (at bottom) to new.

Here is what we got up to in the afternoon session:

Find more photos like this on Maths Literacy Teacher’s Network

I will load my learning pathways as I create them. Here is a learning pathway to learn why and how to create a blog…..

What is a blog and why should we blog?
Define blogs and contexts for use. Provide some blogs ideas depending on what kind of blog you would like to create. Take you through an action plan to focus why you should blog.

To download the Powerpoint in order to see the animations, click here

The anatomy of a blog.
Looks at how a blog is structured in order to provide familiarity. You will also decide on where you should create your blog.
To download the Powerpoint in order to see the animations, click here

The anatomy of a blog: A tutorial

Creating a blog in Edublogs

This tutorial looks at the nitty gritty of creating a blog using Edublogs, registering for your blog, setting it up.

Next:Customizing your blog…

More resources:

• Check and join my blogging resource group on Diigo (updated regularly)
• Wordpress tutorials by topic

Today is the start of my first online blogging workshop. I have about 23 enthusiastic local learners who are going to walk this learning pathway with me so I should not be so scared, should I?

My main aim is to see how an online un-workshop can bring together a bunch of people to learn a new skill and also to pilot my self study tutorials for my subject advisors training initiative. I have decided to create it in PowerPoint so that subject advisors (and who-ever) can just adapt it effortlessly for their own learning and training purposes and I can also just embed videos and links into it. I had some good feedback from my twitter community with hints and suggestions. For instance, I forgot to cite my cartoons and am now frantically trying to figure out sources and permissions!

I am using a NING platform for the workshop and have no idea if it is going to be intuitive for those who attend. I first started in the main network space, but then realise d that it will be very difficult to keep track of discussions in a general space, so I created a seperate group where only the people on the workshop can engage. This provided my first mess-up as I have already asked everybody to introduce themselves in the main space. I have decided to wait an see how we all cope with my brain-dead moment. Indeed a very interesting learning curve for me.

So today we will just get to know each other and find our feet in the group. I have loaded the “Why Blog” learning object for everybody to look at and start thinking about. My main aim for today is to get everybody into the separate workshop group.

The Blogging workshop is here

I have decided to facilitate a blogging workshop online for all my local South African friends, collegues and teachers. Here is my blurp.

Blogging is easy, effortless (I lie of course) and fun! So whether you want to create a vibrant space for your school to show the real spirit of learning, or whether you want to post homework for parents to keep track of what their kids are supposed to be doing, or if you want to be a reflective teacher so that we can learn from you, or if you just want to create a showcase for your organisation, or claim your personal voice in the blogosphere, then this FREE ONLINE un-workshop is for you!

My context will be rooted in the educational aspects of blogging, but we will also look at personal and organisational blogging. We will not be looking at blogging for profit, but if anyone wants to bring that in, you’re welcome! And it will all happen ONLINE in Learnwithmaggie, so no need to scramble around, just fit it into your busy schedule!

The focus of this unworkshop will therefore be the nitty-gritty of blogging from a beginners point of view and will be aimed at providing you with the skills and motivation to set up, maintain and enhance your blog. You will choose a blogging platform, set up your blog and post a blog every two days for 4 weeks. (Don’t worry you can cut and paste from your ideas/object folder). You will also be required to speed read at least 2 blogs of the people on your pathway and leave comments in order to support each other!

Start date: 10 November 2008 – 6 December 2008

Where We will use my Learnwithmaggie network as our learning springboard!

Content:

• Why do we need to blog- creating an ideas folder
• Reading and commenting on blogs
• Choosing a blogging platform (The difference between wordpress, edublogs, blogger, iblog…)
• Registering for a blog
• Creating your first blogpost
• Customizing your blog
• Embedding videos,slideshows,pictures
• Inserting widgets
• Staying up to date with blogs
• Blogging safety
• Blog maintenance

To register, please complete the registration commitment form Then please proceed to the blogging group where we will work from

I am so glad to report that instead of me nagging teachers to start blogging, I have been getting a lot of requests to run a blogging workshop. So I have decided to run all my essential teacher toolkit tools as learning pathways /un-workshops online (We are all gatvol of workshops- if you want me to do a F2F workshop, book me for next year). This just means that I will be featuring a tool at a time in a focused and step by step way, taking everybody through the steps collaboratively and with community support (hopefully). This will all happen online using my learnwithmaggie community as our base, this school 2.0 blog, our SASchools wiki and the featured tools. Hopefully there will be some off you that will volunteer to facilitate a pathway with your featured tool (eg run a un-workshop where-ever)

Motivation:

The problem with all the new wonderful tools are, that we do not have time to really get to grips with them. This in turn leads to an inability to successfully use the tools for teaching and learning. We will only know if a tool is going to be effective in our classrooms if we first use it ourselves in an engaged way! I also find that teachers sometimes choose the wrong/right tool for the wrong/right purpose or place too much emphasis on the tool that the teaching and learning get lost (I am also very guilty here I am afraid). Hopefully the online nature of these learning pathways/un-workshops will also give us the opportunity to support one another as we walk along our learning pathway, as well as allow us to get on top of the tool (:-) in our own time, on our own terms, in our own space/place, wherever that may be! These un-workshops will also give me a chance to pilot my DoE learning objects and to get feedback in order for me to adapt, edit and improve them! To really make a tool your own you have to use it regularly for at least 3-4 weeks. So that is what we will do! Over a 4 week period we will register for the tool, explore its use, collaborate using the tool and support one another’s use of the tool through commenting, discussion and collaboration. I am hoping to get especially South African teachers on board….

Essential toolkit

It is actually very difficult for me to decide on my favourite tools. So I am going to highlight some of the tools (from me and Bronwyn’s connected teacher’s toolkit workshop in e\merge 2008) that I absolutely love and feel should form the essential arsenal of any teacher hoping to empower themself and their learners for life in the 21st century! (Will add and subtract). Please vote for what you would like to be un-workshopped below!

Click on topic for more info, (to register and for a more detailed breakdown of the un-workshop)
(Note: all pathways are at beginner level, but if you would like to act as a mentor, we will love you forever, please register)

• Talking/chatting (Mxit/Skype/GTalk) (we will juse this for realtime support)
• Blogging (edublogs/wordpress/blogger) (Publishing yourself) (Start 10th November)
  Registration now open……
• Micro-blogging (twitter) (Bestest way to network!)
• Social Bookmarking (Delicious and Diigo) (Share resources)
• Social Networking (Facebook / NING) (Collaboration and learning communities)
• Wikis (Pbwiki/Wetpaint/Wikispaces) (Collaboration and learning communities
• Photo sharing (Flickr and Picasa) (Media literacy and creativity)
• Presentation sharing (Slideshare) (Media literacy and creativity)
• Aggregation (Netvibes/igoogle) (Collecting and staying on top of all your favourite resource updates)
• Mindmapping (Bubbl.us)
• Googledocs (Collaboration and document creation)
• Videocasting and tools (Media literacy and creativity)
• Podcasting (Media literacy and creativity)
• Thutong.org.za (our educational portal learn how to upload and use!)
• Web 2.0-atise a lesson (bring and sing) (Bring a lesson and lets see which tool will put it alight!)

Once you have registered, you will receive a link to an online contract of commitment where you will undertake to

• “Stick it out” for the duration of the chosen learning pathway
• Support each other through comments and discussion
• Reflect on your learning pathway by posting a blog entry (or linking an entry) in this community

Dates:
Check list above for start of pathway, but feel free to jump in any time (you might have to work on your own though- post a request for a learning buddy)

Why you should do this?
To get with the programme, become a lifelong learner, prepare your learners for the 21st century and fit it all into your everyday teaching load……What can I say…let’s dream on….

Cost: free
Please bear in mind that I am working 24/7 developing learning objects for my dayjob at the DoE. So I will be just as busy as all of you teachers , so I will, like you, fit this in between having no time and having no time….So no excuses…..