School 2.0 in SA

In my efforts to get more teachers (especially maths and lit teachers) to blog, twitter and embrace 21st century learning tools, I am having a free ONLINE (jip you can do it from anywhere provided you have internet access) un-workshop during the whole of August.

For more info and to register (20 people max) go here http://learnwithmaggie.ning.com/page/blogtwit-workshop-4-august-3

For reasons and examples on why you should be dabbling with social media tools in the classroom, see my Amesa conference slideshare here: http://www.authorstream.com/Presentation/maggiev-220100-social-media-mathematics-class-teacher-school-classroom-socialmedia-amesa2009-july-education-ppt-powerpoint/ (Ps you can download it from there as well and go through it like a tutorial)

The aim of the workshop is for teachers to create and maintain a
focussed blog while supporting one another using twitter. We
will use twitter as our main communication channel and explore how
it can help us to do advocacy for our blog, get quick ideas and
discover the learning magic! This way we should be able to get into
the habit of “blog-twitting” and also explore how we can use it in
all aspects of our lifes, organisations,schools. The blog can be a
personal blog, school blog, class blog or a organisational blog! I
will endeavour to facilitate your journey through little steps in a
supported way, helping you over the nitty gritty little thingies of
blogging, widgets, gadgets and twittering. Hopefully we will evolve
as strong learning partners with functional blogs!! The first week
will be dedicated to twitter-ing and getting comfortable with the
notion of blogging.

Too much????!!!!

Level: Beginner blogger/twit

Skills needed: Basic computer skills (you can type (even if it
is with 1 finger) e-mail, cut and paste and navigate your way
around the internet!

Important skill: Perserverence and a longing to learn and
have fun!

Number of participants: 20 max

Cost:Free online

Tools to use: Twitter, Wordpress/edublogs, various other
widgets form photosharing sites, polls, google docs….

To make a commitment and register for this workshop, please complete the following form:

Loading…

• How ‘microblogging’ sites such as Twitter can be used in education

  Compare three mb sites (Twitter, edmodo and shoutem)

  tags: microblogging, twitter, edmodo, school2.0

• 7 Things You Should Know About Blogs

  A blog—shorthand for “Web log”—is an online collection of personal commentary and links. Blogs can be viewed as online journals to which others can respond that are as simple to use as e-mail. The simplicity of creating and maintaining blogs means they can rapidly lead to open discussions. Faculty are using blogs to express their opinions, promote dialogue in their disciplines, and support teaching and learning; students increasingly use blogs for personal expression and as course requirements. By carefully evaluating blogs’ strengths and weaknesses, educators are learning to set guidelines and expectations to maximize blogs’ instructional benefits. Structured exercises and clear goals are further enhancing the educational value of blogs. Put into practice with an understanding of their benefits and limitations, blogs are an increasingly accepted instructional technology tool.

  tags: blogging, school2.0

• 15 Free Tools for Web-based Collaboration – Annotated

  As part of assessment tasks the learners have to do projects. These tools lends themselve to great collaborative ideas which can also be incorporated into their portfolios.

  tags: collaboration, projectmanagement, projects, school2.0

  • bubbl.us
    • Excellent tool now (v 0.5.9) for either a private or collaborative mind map.
  • http://www.diigo.com

• Top 10 Web 2.0 Tools for Young Learners

  I actually would debate this list…

  tags: education, elementary, school2.0, primaryschool

• Can we be less prescriptive in our classrooms – and more successful with our students?

  “This model for learning mathematics may be quite different from what teachers experienced themselves in the past where classrooms were less interactive, filled with little activity and conversation. Teachers were generally in control, directing all aspects of what was to be learned; different points of view and approaches seldom brought to the surface new ideas and insights and a high degree of redundancy meant that everybody learned the exact same thing at the exact same time.

  tags: education, teaching, teachingandlearning, school2.0, Research, mathematics, science

• Top 100 Education Blogs | OEDb – Annotated

  tags: education, blogging, school2.0, lists

• Evolution of life

  Discover the principles of evolution through animations, movies and simulations

  tags: lifesciences, evolution, darwin, school2.0, biology

• Beyond blocking: Embracing the social web – A good list for reference

  A selection of web2.0 social and participatory resources (articles, essays, tools, tips) for school information officers.

  tags: school2.0, sociallearning

• Free workshop: eL4C25 5-day Online Workshop: June 15 – 19, 2009

  Learn how to use Wikieducator, design lesson plans, curriculum development, improve instruction and learning, and collaborate with educators around the world.

  tags: workshops, wshops, school2.0, wiki

• South Africa’s National Holidays :Holidays in South Africa Explained

  Ever wondered where our public holidays comes from again. Here is some history

  tags: school2.0, history, holidays

• Using Moodle book – MoodleDocs

  Using Moodle – Teaching with the Popular Open Source Course management System by Jason Cole and Helen Foster is published by O’Reilly as part of the Community Press series. It can be downloaded for free. Cool

  The first edition of the book, written by Jason Cole and released in July 2005, is based on Moodle 1.4. The second edition, released in November 2007, has been updated to cover all the features in Moodle 1.8, such as the new roles and permissions system, blogs, messaging and the database module.

  tags: moodle, tutorial, web2.0, opensource, school2.0, elearning, e-learning

• Twenty books to read for any age group

  tags: librarians, libraries, school2.0

• Guide to Wikipedia Tools & Resources – Everything You Wanted to Do With Wikipedia Encyclopedia – Annotated

  Soem FAQ’s with links to guide you through getting to use and contribute to Wikipedia

  tags: wikipedia, web2.0tools, guide, school2.0, wiki

  • I know Word and some basic HTML tags but find the Wiki syntax complex and confusing. Do you know of any Wikipedia editing tools?

    A: You can write a document inside Microsoft Word and this extension will convert that Word Document into a markup that Wikipedia can understand. Alternatively, you can use any HTML editor – like Dreamweaver or Live Writer – and then convert your HTML tags into Wiki markup using this tool.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

• School 2.0 – Reflection Tool

  The Reflection Tool presents questions that are designed to help you reflect on your skills in technology integration and to identify areas for growth. These questions are based on the Technology Standards for School Administrators developed by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the Skills Framework developed by the Consortium for School Networking (COSN).

  tags: school2.0, saschools, school administrators, skills framework

• Classroom Visit Rubric to assess ICT intergration by teachers in the classroom

  You can download the spreadsheet and use

  tags: school2.0, saschools, rubric, ict, teachers

• The Innovative Educator: Tools Innovative Educators Can Use to Assess the Infusion of 21st Century Skills Into Instruction

  Good links to assessment tools for principles and teachers to emasure complaince in the 21st century

  tags: assessment, assessmenttools, rubrics, school2.0, 21stcenturylearning, web2.0tools

• One Laptop per Child (OLPC): Vision

  tags: onelaptopperchild, school2.0

• Download and install the Adobe Universal PostScript Windows driver

  This is a tool that makes it possible for you to print a doc as a pdf

  tags: pdf, software, school2.0

• PinkyDinkyDoo.com – awesome early learning site!

  PinkyDinkyDoo.com – awesome early learning site!

  tags: foundationphase, school2.0

• “Code of Conduct for Social Networking” Collection

  tags: codesofconduct, school2.0, guidelines, socialmedia, business, policy, saschools

• RT @nicheprof : Intel Social Media Guidelines

  These are the official guidelines for social media at Intel. If you’re an Intel employee or contractor creating or contributing to blogs, wikis, social networks, virtual worlds, or any other kind of social media both on and off intel.com—these guidelines are for you.

  tags: school2.0, guidelines, socialmedia, business, policy, saschools

• The SchoolTool Project -opensource school mangement system for Ubuntu Linux

  SchoolTool is a project to develop a common global school administration infrastructure that is freely available under an Open Source license We are currently developing a web based student information and calendaring system. SchoolTool 1.0 beta was released October 30, 2008 and SchoolTool 1.0 will be ready in April 2009 for deployments in fall 2009.

  tags: school2.0, opensource, software, education, web2tools

  • Ubuntu – Edubuntu operating system for schools – works as a server for statistics and infos
    
  • The SchoolTool Project SchoolTool is a project to develop a common global school administration infrastructure that is freely available under an Open Source licence. Products are: * SchoolTool Calendar is our calendar and resource management tool fo – post by fredericknoronha
  • A project to develop a common global school administration infrastructure that is freely available under an Open Source licence.
    – post by dannyzhu
  • SchoolTool is a project to develop a common global school administration infrastructure that is freely available under an Open Source licence. Calendar – post by ycc2106
  • open source school administration software .. might be useful in other non-profit settings as well – post by ademack
  • SchoolTool is a project to develop a common global school administration infrastructure that is freely available under an Open Source licence. – post by ziller

• EduSpaces

  Join the world’s first and largest social networking site dedicated to education and educational technology. Launched in 2004 and with over 19,000 members there is something in here for everyone interested in education

  tags: school2.0, education, e-learning, collaboration, elearning, elgg, Communities

• The 21st Century Learner slideshow- nice one!

  This slideshow gives a visual look at the 21st century learner

  tags: school2.0, slideshare, education, 21stcenturylearning, digitalcitizenship

• Adding ClustrMaps to Your Blog Sidebar Using A Text Widget

  tags: school2.0, edublogs, blogging, bl101, bloggingworkshop

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

I received a tweet from one of my twitter contacts (loisath) which told me that I have been tagged in her “7 things about me” meme. So the first thing I did was to go and see what it is all about by reading her blogpost about the topic. Basically you have to write a blogpost describing 7 things about yourself that people do not need to know about you. You then tag 7 others to do the same and then let them know. This results in everybody basically spreading the idea virally and it gets promulgated almost in the same way as a chain e-mail letter.

I then looked up what a MEME is (not the sound that sheep make apparently) and found a very good blogpost explaining it in a friendly non-scientific way from Gary LaPointe. According to him it is “lists of questions that you saw somewhere else and you decided to answer the questions. Then someone else sees them and does them and so on and so on”.  In essence it is:

• An idea that, like a gene, can replicate and evolve.
• A unit of cultural information that represents a basic idea that can be transferred from one individual to another, and subjected to mutation, crossover and adaptation.
• A cultural unit (an idea or value or pattern of behavior) that is passed from one generation to another by nongenetic means (as by imitation); “memes are the cultural counterpart of genes”.

So what is the point?

So let’s get back to the the question that formed the basis of this meme: “7 things about yourself that people do not need to know about you”. Why would anybody need to know this about me? Isn’t it an invasion of privacy and poses a security risk? Will it be a “cultural unit” as posed in the definitions stated above? Hardly. In a way it does resemble the sheep-like action of sheep following one another in a thoughtless manner. So what would encourage me to immitate this meme and behave like a sheep?

Firstly, I have always liked sheep- they are wooly and cuddly and cute. Secondly, my rule of thumb is to do something if it at all encourage learning and collaboration. So the question for me is did I learn something? The answer of cause is, yes. I learnt a new word (meme) and what it means in different scenarios and I learned about the person that asked me to partake in the meme. From her answer, I at first thought that she was local (from South Africa- especially the bit about her aiding and abetting the theft of a microwave) which made me very excited to encounter another blogging local teacher! But, alas she was not, which made me realise that we indeed live in a global village and have so much in common (especially the cannot-spell-admisssion)! So from a collaborative point of view, she has strengthened her networking with me with her invitation ( I will now keep an eye out for her as I feel I know here just that little bit better). Thirdly by asking people to extend this meme, you can get some exposure for your blog (good old marketing tactic)!

When I started thinking about 7 things that people will not know about me….I realised that I am definitely not shy (as opposed to private), leaving very little that people do not know about me. So here goes:

The Rules

Each player starts with seven random facts/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write on their own blog about their seven things, as well as these rules. You need to choose seven people to get tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged and to read your blog!

7 things that you did not know about me… (definitely harder than it looks)

1. I get on with bees (found this out recently as the bees seems to be refusing to leave my washing room ceiling and it does not really bother me anymore)
2. I cannot seem to get plants to grow (so that is why I try to get communities to grow instead)- jip, no green fingers.
3. I hate cooked spinach (much to green), but can eat it in a salad.
4. I love reading forensic crime stories even from before CSI etc, made it fashionable
5. I love maths (everybody knows that) but struggle with doing calculations in my head and goes blank if older people ask me to calculate 1+1 (comes from when my primary school teacher hit me with a stick everytime she asked me a maths question- reminder to self-must go for therapy….;-) This resulted in me wanting to become a maths teacher as a way of learning to cope and making sure that others do not have to live with the same fear.
6. I cannot bake. Cook yes, bake no.
7. I am scared of heights (comes from when I did a bungi jump way back….another sheep-like activity that I regret I ever partook in…)

So how do you choose 7 people? Okay, as I have been trying to get local teachers to blog, I think it will be useful to give everybody a common topic to get us started for the year. Also this can be a good way of extending your network to include people who do not know you.

So here is my tagees, with reasons why I chose them:

• Tateach (will be nice to get to know someone in Tasmania better!)
• Ronan7 (a local teacher and fellow web 2.0 enthusiast
• Melaniedebruyn (another local teacher and fellow web 2.0 enthusiast
• carbru (part of my blogging learning circle and a sweetie pie)
• moondancer (My sister and an avid blogger- would like to see if there is something I do not know about her…
• Ariellah (I hope she is not angry with me any more….)
• janenicholls (a random click from my tweeple network)

(I just love this new meme word and am definitely going to pronounce it mêêêê- mêêêêê (like the sound a sheep makes)

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

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 just want to create a showcase for your organisation, or claim your personal voice in the blogosphere, then this 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!

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: Online at Learnwithmaggie

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 form

The un-workshop will mainly happen on my Learnwithmaggie Ning, so also go and register there!

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…..

As I am still busy collecting good resources and getting my mind around why blogging is so valuable for education, I will, for the time being, store some of the valuable resources found here to keep track of things. If you have anything to chuck here as well, please go ahead.

I am busy creating a blogging learning object for use with subject advisors and teachers. It has been a great learning experience for me as I had to actually sit down and think about why we blog. Speaking to other teachers and edtech aficionados, I realised that there are endless reasons for teachers to blog. It also seems that the biggest reason people fail to maintain a blog after creation is because they do not have a clear vision of what to blog about.

I therefore decided to create a collection of reason with examples to help motivate us to blog more regularly for teaching and learning. In my quest I have stumbled upon some inspirational examples of teacher blogs, but was sad to see that there are not enough ordinary teachers blogging. It is mainly web 2.0 convertees, IT, CAT and edtech teachers going for it flat out. I am interested to see how “ordinary” (as in non IT) class teachers use blogs.

My idea list for reasons to blog has amounted to the following and I am looking to link up with exact examples. It has been quite a time consuming exercise (something we do not have a lot of) and am desperately hoping for some assistance in completing my list examples. So if you have written a blogpost that I can use as an example of the following blog post ideas, please add them to a comment here!

Post daily homework tasks (http://smithmel.edublogs.org/2007/11/12/create-a-cartoon-caption-assignment/)

• Reflect on the days teaching
• Post the lesson plan for each class
• Post educational tutorials
• Embed videos and slideshows that you want the class to watch and post comment on. (peer review maybe?) (http://class.huffenglish.com/?p=1115)
• Post newsletters
• Post parent notes (http://art-on-the-move.blogspot.com/search/label/Art%20Room)
• Post sport results
• Post a photo gallery
• Inspirational quotes
• Comment on current educational issues
• Inspiration
• Embed a school radio station
• Share teaching tips
• Share teaching resources
• Share resources and links
• …….?  Please let me know what I have left out….