iTeach180 Project Day 15

The past three weeks have been a lot of setting up and introducing blended with independent practice. Students may become irritated, cranky, and anxious about using all of these tools on their own. And, hopefully they are starting to use them in other classes as well. Today we are going to send them on an search for information using the skills and tools we introduced this week: Diigo and Evernote.

Objectives:
Students will be able to compile information on given subject
Students will be able to organize information on a given subject using tags
Students will be able to present information

Process:

If you are presenting this lesson in a Web 2.0 class you will have many directions in which you can take this lesson. If you are integrating these tools and this lesson into a content area classroom, you will want to focus your lesson around what you want your students to find.

1. Have students respond to this prompt: Social Networks are closing us off from the rest of the world and creating a society of selfish, ego driven individuals. They are wasting time in workplace and are a constant disruption to a student's learning. 


2. Explain that students would normally respond to this type of response in a written essay, however, that will not be the case today. Have students seek out information to either defend or challenge this prompt. Instruct students that they have the entire class period today to work in groups or individually and find clippings that support or challenge this prompt.

NOTE: You may want to provide a list of sites that you suggest they use and explain that they must cite everything when clipping. Again, depending on what content area you teach in, you may want to cover web citations. I constantly think of this since I am an English Teacher. 


3. Allow students to present in any way they want but require them to use one of the web clipping tools you just introduced.

NOTE: You could have students write a blog reflection post on the positives and negatives of the web clipping tool they used to find, clip, and organize information. 


And that's it. Tell students that they will be presenting in class on Monday (unless you have a block period than you could do this in one day). You may wish to present a rubric for presentation guidelines. This lesson is a fun way of using some of the tools you have been covering for the past three weeks. Plus, they are covering a topic that they are surrounded by daily. This topic will also preview our next three units on collaborative learning, social networking, and digital citizenship.

Have a great weekend!

iTeach180 Project Day 12

Yesterday I introduced Diigo. Today we will be exploring more features of Diigo beyond the basic setup and networking. There are many features Diigo offers for web browsing, collecting, and organizing. Today I will be covering highlighting tool, The Stickies tool, and how you can set up a group for your class or department.

Objectives:

Students will be able to create a group on Diigo

Students will be able to use the highlighting tool on Diigo

Students will be able to share links via Diigo

Process:

Today’s lesson is more of an instructor overview of what students can do with Diigo tools. As an instructor there are a variety of ways in which you can incorporate this type of tool into any content area classroom. A few examples:

English – This is great for student research and gathering secondary sources. Students have the ability to highlight chunks of text within an article and make note of it with a sticky note as well. Students can also find information on authors you are reading and save them all under one tag.

History – Like English, this is a great tool for research collections. If you are covering a specific period of history, students find news sources that connect of reflect that period. They can then add sticky notes and write their connections of the two time periods.

Science – Students can conduct research on a specific scientific principle and find an example online of how that principle is being used in everyday life. They can highlight information and refer back to it as they scan the web.

Math – Have students bookmark and highlight Dan Meyers blog. This is a must! Students can find a word problem that reflects a specific math equation and highlight an example of that in an article they find on the online. Or, students can collect data to create their own word problems by highlight information from a newspapers’ business section.

Art – Students can find artist and then set out on a web quest to find and highlight information pertaining to that artist’s work and life.

Again, most of the above examples fall under the category of web quest or research. You may want to start exploring Diigo by using one of the options above or you can invent your own.

The videos below explain how students can bookmark, share, highlight, and create groups within Diigo for easy project collaboration.

1. Installing a Diigolet in your browser

2. Using the highlighting and sticky tools.

3. Creating a Diigo Group

iTeach180 Project Day 11

The past two weeks my hypothetical technology class has been setting up their classroom infrastructure. At this point, they are connected in many ways: RSS, iGoogle, Blogs, etc. It is always a good idea to take the time to set up and make sure students understand these collaborative tools. Once they have these tools understood and in place, you can easily incorporate dynamic lessons and projects throughout the year. Plus, these “infrastructure” tools are applicable in any content area class.

This week we are going to move in the direction of web organization and content sharing. In the next few days I will be presenting lessons on Diigo and Evernote. Both tools allow anyone to set up a free or premium account and share and organize web content.

Objectives:
Students will be able to demonstrate Diigo
Students will be able to use Diigo effectively
Students will be able to bookmark with Diigo

Process:
Today we are going to setup a Diigo account. It is best to show your students how to do this on the overhead projector with their laptop screens down. Model the basic setup and navigation of Diigo and explain various ways in which they can use this tool. There is also an instructional video on the main page at Diigo.com that will give students and teachers an overview of what Diigo is and what Diigo can do for you.

I created two videos below to further illustrate the basic setup and navigation of Diigo. Tomorrow I will get into web highlighting, sticky notes, and groups. There are a number of ways in which Diigo can be incorporated into the classroom and faculty vocabulary.

1 Comment Project 2.0

Coming soon...

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Presenting Your PLN

In my last post, I talked about three easy steps to setting up and implementing a Personal Learning Network (PLN) in your school. In this post, I am catering to the visual learner and have created a Power Point that will surely engage your audience at your next PD. It involves four simple slides, four prominent words and four familiar images. There are no bullet points and no spiraling text. It is clean, crisp and allows you to vocalize your ideas on creating and implementing a PLN.

Use this Power Point! In fact, STEAL THIS POWERPOINT! Take it, impress your colleagues! Be the first to show what Power Point 2.0 looks like. Leave the bullets and spiraling text at home. Put it away and your colleagues will thank you. They will high-five you and smile in your general direction! You may even be carried out of the PD on the shoulders of your administrators.

Keep the presentation short and sweet. Show them how creating a PLN within your school will stimulate collaboration and enhance content. In the end, creating a PLN and accepting this is as simple as this Power Point. You will be resistance, but stay the course and don’t back down from an opportunity to enhance, stimulate and save your colleagues lots of time. All the while, helping students achieve 21st century learning skills.

If you use this simple presentation, please let me know the reaction you receive. Or if you have your own PD presentation created, I would love for you to share your ideas.

PLN Presentation 2.0

View more presentations from andycinek.

Creating A Grassroots PLN at your School

Recently I have been providing some of my colleagues with web 2.0 resources for their classrooms. They ask, “this is great, where did you find it?” I casually say, “well in my free time (meaning all day) I am quite the avid twit.” A light laugh ensues.

In a new charter school that is struggling with performance standards and catching up students who have been left behind by urban public school systems, it is hard to thread technology into the conversation. However, in the next few weeks I am going to propose several new initiatives to our administration. These new initiatives will include the following items…

1. Creating a learning network within our building

This learning network will include several key ingredients. First, I plan to inspire my colleagues to obtain a twitter account. I really feel like twitter has become the stepping stone for jumping off into a world of endless resources and collaboration. Since joining twitter two years ago, I have met so many great minds and educators. They have all helped to provoke and motivate my thinking in ways that make teaching an exciting venture. Now, I am sure I will encounter the questions

“what value will this have in my classroom?”

“we have enough to do, I cannot add anything more to my plate”

“this will just distract from teaching, no?”

These are some of the questions that I expect and I am sure there will be more. My answers will flow something like this. Twitter is what you make of it. It is not required to teach and is certainly not a distraction from my own teaching. Our kids are behind because most of them received a 20^th century education that included copious amounts of “busy work”. Having a twitter account will allow you to find other teachers, principals and administrators who are encountering the same hurdles. You can begin by posing a question and segue into a discussion in which you are solving problems through twitter. At that’s it, twitter is simply a forum that allows us to engage in a rapid exchange of ideas. Twitter is what you make of it. It can be a distracter from lessons and work if you let it be, but for the most part, it is an integral part of my own teaching and has provided me with more insight into becoming a dynamic teacher than any other forum in my career.

There will always be those who are afraid of trying something new, however, if you want to start a PLN at your school, like I plan on, start with twitter. Show your colleagues the value of the rapid exchange of ideas and resources and they will never look back.

2. Wiki or Ning

Once you have your colleagues tweeting up a storm and delivering new teaching methods because of twitter, introduce them to a place where you can house all of your plans, units, ideas, calendars, meetings, etc. I am not partial to either of the aforementioned platforms, and have had great success with both in my experience.

I find a wiki space would work best for creating a forum to house lesson plans and school documents that parents, guardians and other teachers can access universally. I have used wikispaces with many of my classes and the kids find it easy and the parents adapt to the accessibility of information. The wikispace also allows everyone to be an active participant in taking ownership of the site.

However, if you simply want a forum to exchange ideas and resources links, then I feel a Ning would be best for you. A ning has less manipulability than a wiki and works best as a way for faculty, parents and administration to communicate and spread announcements rapidly in one place. In the Ning, you can also create groups for your departments. These groups can have remote PD’s through the chat forum and create and respond to discussion threads.

Again, both have their merits, but find out what you want your PLN forum to look like and choose which works best for you entire district.

3. Start organizing resources through Diigo

Diigo is the third part of the trifecta of creating a PLN within your school. I have really benefited from the Diigo groups that I have become a part of. I have found and promoted many blogs via Diigo and I cannot say enough about the ease of use. Diigo is a very easy to use site that allows users to bookmark a site, define the site and then categorically organize your sites. The web interface allows you to tag all of your websites you save and access them easily by each tag. You can also create groups and add friends to share in all of your bookmarks. When you add a colleague you both will be able to share and exchange bookmarks.

Creating a Diigo group is a great way to organize your department this fall. E-mail your department colleagues a link to a Diigo group. Tell them that you want to create an online resource library for links and blogs that fit your discipline. For those who say, “Now what? Something else to sign up for and receive junk mail” bribe them with candy. I usually go with Butterfinger, but also provide moist towelets, because no one wants a sticky keyboard!

Once you have them hooked, branch out and look into creating cross-curricular groups! Create a digital bridge with language arts and history; math and science. With Diigo, users have the ability to create wonderful learning communities and collaborate with each other. Building an online resource library should be on the “To Do” list of ever teacher this summer!

So that’s all. These three steps, along with standards and edu-tech curriculum examples, will serve as my platform for creating a PLN and a culture of education technology in my school.

I am tired of hearing my students complain that they do not get to use their laptops enough and I plan on changing that. Students need 21^st century skills to compete globally. These skills are just as essential as reading, writing and math. If we keep pushing it off, it will only fade into wasted resources within our schools. We cannot let this happen. And we need to lead by example. Get your PLN started and give all of your colleagues a high-five for trying something completely different!

Create An Online Resource Library; Enjoy A Butterfinger

In years past, we all used to browse through endless web pages, bookmark the ones we liked and then scroll down a long list trying to locate that “great site we found but cannot remember what it was about”. Sometimes, if we found a site that had a dancing hamster, we would bookmark and e-mail it to friends and relatives. In my district, there is always the one teacher who loves to send out a mass e-mail that is simply a link to a great site that he or she found. It is a kind thought, but working on a PC at school gives me reservations about clicking. What if I click and instead of a great new blog I get dancing hamster ninja porn and all of my districts computers are infected right before final grades are due!!!!
Wanna get away…

No, this is not an ad or link to an even cheaper Southwest Airlines flight, but a new way of organizing your web content. It’s simply called Diigo. Yes, another quirky web 2.0 tool name that will have all your colleagues asking, “Diigo, who? Diigo, what?” What is a good blog without a little Jay-Z humor!

Diigo is a very easy to use site that allows users to bookmark a site, define the site and then categorically organize your sites. The web interface allows you to tag all of your websites you save and access them easily by each tag. You can also create groups and add friends to share in all of your bookmarks. When you add a colleague you both will be able to share and exchange bookmarks.

Creating a Diigo group is a great way to organize your department this fall. Before you get into all the chaos of the school year, e-mail your department colleagues a link to a Diigo group. Tell them that this year you want to create an online resource library for links and blogs that fit your discipline. For those who say, “Now what? Something else to sign up for and receive junk mail” bribe them with candy. I usually go with Butterfinger, but also provide moist towelets, because no one wants a sticky keyboard!

Once you have them hooked, branch out and look into creating cross-curricular groups! Create a digital bridge with language arts and history; math and science. With Diigo, users have the ability to create wonderful learning communities and collaborate with each other. Building an online resource library should be on the “To Do” list of ever teacher this summer!

As always, I look forward to hearing your feedback and how you have created your online resource library. If you want to see one in action, feel free to join my Diigo group at http://groups.diigo.com/groups/the-one-comment-a-day-project. We are building an online resource library for web 2.0 blogs that focus on education. It is an extension of my last post, The One Comment A Day Project. Please join and expand the learning possibilities!