(This post combines notes on two sessions from Internet @ Schools: Nonfiction 2.0 and Common Core, and Learning 2.0 and 23 Things in Schools.)
Marc Aronson, Rutgers
Melissa Jacobs-Israel, NYC Dept of Educ
Mary Fran Daley, Lehigh Univ. Doctoral Program
Google Maps allowed author(Lee Berger) of The Skull in the Rock to “see” terrain differently.
We read to actively explore not passively absorb. Knowledge is IN-formation.
Bats, Furry Fliers of the Night e-book example. How does an app or e-book extend learning and reading interest of kids? Book interacts back with you. Exemplary model of use of digital space that iPad could explore.
Al Gore, Our Choice book app — another exemplar use of e-book capabilities–images can be enlarged, popped open, some images unfold when you touch them; interactive infographics, narrated photos, embedded films, etc.
History Pin — helps provide historical context; users can post pictures and pin them to a geographic location and add their story to the photo, can have a discussion about the photograph. As a student, can provide background information, can narrow down by date/subject. Can create collections.
Sites like these and more can be found on AASL Best Websites for Teaching and Learning — great list.
Learning 2.0 and 23 Things
23 Things–If you aren’t familiar, this concept was started by Helen Blowers and was designed as a self-directed learning activity for her librarians where they over time stepped through 23 training activities. She licensed it under Creative Commons so librarians around the world have recreated their own.
Some have been designed for librarians, teachers, even for parents.
Starts with a lesson and then learning activities –often involves having participants set up a blog first and then sharing each activity as they go. (Polly suggests have a variety of levels of learning activities). Using a method like this helps build confidence for whoever is participating–library assistants, library staff, parents, etc. get comfortable with using web 2.0 tools. Offering incentives when people have completed tasks or professional development credit. Have flexibility in terms of letting people complete it. That doesn’t mean that some learners don’t still need one-to-one support, but it helps people take small bites and learn at their own pace.
Sarah Ludwig sharing an example of her use of the 23 Things concept– called 19 Things for Hamden Hall, it functioned as a way for faculty to learn about integrating technology tools in their classrooms. It was completely voluntary for teachers (she had about 50%) participation; updated once weekly with a new activity. Her administrator allowed a Kindle Fire to be raffled for those who participated; her principal held a ceremony at the end of the year honoring all those teachers for participating.
Suggests grouping your tools together by theme so that people can understand why /what they are learning. Her categories were Online Life(including digital citizenship, creative commons, wikipedia, etc.), Writing and Sharing (blogging, wikis, google Docs), Productivity tools, Learning tools(How to keep learning after the 19 things were over) and Presentation tools.
Their 19 things required teacher to try two of the tools during the week. Included videos like Blogs in Plain English from Common Craft.
Sara Kelley-Mudie at Forman School (school for students w/learning disabilities) did a 14 Things program for her faculty. An advantage for her was that they didn’t have to find a common time to get together–teachers could learn on their own. The point was to help bring around a culture shift and get faculty to just explore and also to ask each other for help since a group of them were participating.
To follow up the second year, started a blog where she continued to share websites for teachers and where teachers could share their websites with her.
Suggestion for building your own:
Customize for your population
Search Google using terms like “Evernote” and “23 Things” to find other people’s particular lessons
Have teachers apply it to “real” world–change a presentation they’d done before utilizing one of the tools
Have teachers share tool they learned at faculty meeting
You also learn from creating the site and you learn from the participants
Question from audience–Have you applied this model to students?
Suggestion–10 Things for Research Papers for students
Pick tools that are directly applicable to your faculty, not just “fun” or “cool” but things that can be used, and tools that are just beginning to be talked about on their campus.
Free Tech For Teachers a good resource for these tools.
Model flexibility if tools change because they will.