I’m currently enrolled in a master’s class from Lehigh University labeled “Supervision and Professional Development.” As part of the class we were asked to contribute a “best learning experience.” Given my enthusiasm for classroom tech, I offered the following submission:

“The best learning experience I’ve had in the last couple of years is one that not only affected me deeply but has grown to influence and, I believe, improve learning for my faculty and students is the integration of 21st century technology in the classroom and in the school generally.

As a teaching principal, I’ve used online resources over the years to great affect in the classroom. And while useful, the resources I was using were often discrete and disjointed–i.e. I would find a rubric I like here, a worksheet I like there, a study guide hither, and a classroom activity yon. The recent evolution in web 2.0 utilities, however, has changed everything.

I began immersing myself in utilities such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious, wikis, NewsReaders, etc. about a year and a half or two years ago. Immediately it was apparent to me how these utilities might be useful not only in the classroom but in the school as a whole. While I had had my students dabble in these technologies previously, they quickly became central to our skills-based learning outcomes as I realized that this is the direction in which learning was moving.

In order to make sense of the exponentially increasing information out there, collaboration via these media has become essential so that I can work together to collate and process the information. And not only that–how I can communicate more effectively with students and colleagues is being revolutionized in new tools such as Google Wave. (I’m kevinblissett@googlewave.com, by the way, if you’d like to join my wave. I have plenty of invites if you need them.)

The upshot of all of this is that I’ve gotten most of my faculty and students on the technology train as well–not because I’m forcing my own interests on them, but rather because they quickly come to realize that we can learn and collaborate better via these media. I’m still learning these techologies; something new comes out every week. But I’m genuinely excited about the tools, and I’ve grown more efficient and connected as I’ve used them. I believe my faculty and students have as well.

Wow! I just came across a great resource via Free Technology for Teachers Blog: Google Advanced Books Search. Up to this point, if I’d wanted to find an online book, I’d just do a normal search for the book. Using Google’s Book Search is a much more powerful option.

Instructions:

1. Go to <books.google.com>.
2. Click Advanced Search to the right of the search bar.
3. Put in whatever title or information is pertinent.
4. In the search field, click Public Domain if you wish to download and print the book.
5. Click Google Search at the top right.
6. Choose your title.

Another benefit is that after you’ve chosen the title, you’re able to read it in the excellent Google Books Reader. This is a fantastic resource, particularly if you don’t have specific or enough selections in your library. Give it a try.

• Structures for learning
• Time for learning
• Tools for learning
• Communities for learning
• Policy in support of learning

This paper should be required reading for teachers and administrators. Give it a look.

Why let students blog?  The list is infinite:  ownership of writing, connection to the world, motivation, authentic audience (not just teacher), multiple learning styles, prepare students for digital citizenship, gallery of class projects, students as teachers, parent connection,….If you would like a true list of reasons for students to blog, it wouldn’t take more that an afternoon of reading blogs to run across everything from the top 20 reasonsto winning a T-shirt  You can even hear about blogging straight from the mouth of students.  Why did my students start blogging?  I wanted them to be part of social technology outside of myspace.  I wanted them to actually see “outside of the box” outside of their town, their state, and their nation. I wanted them to take ownership in their education.  And I wanted my student from a town of less than 15,000 to see that they truly are part of this world and this world is open to them.  Any classroom can have a great journal with provoking higher order thinking questions, but that journal can’t interact with the students, it can’t ask questions, and it can’t expand students view and knowledge.

A study by the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) reveals that though U.S. school districts recognize the importance of web 2.0 tools, not many districts are fully embracing nor implementing them.

James Bosco, EdD, Principal Investigator of the MacArthur Foundation grant and Co-Chair of CoSN’s International Advisory Council [stated], “If U.S. students are to be the next inventors, entrepreneurs and leaders in the global economy, we must see to it that our young people have the innovative tools they need to be successful in the 21st century, particularly in the classroom.”

OK, this blog understands that–not a revelation.

The study collected data from nearly 1,200 school administrators on the role of digital media in American schools. CoSN worked with the Metiri Group, which conducted the survey of three key groups of education administrators — school district superintendents, curriculum directors and technology officers.

Here are their key findings (my comments in italics):

 

• The nation’s district administrators are overwhelmingly positive about the impact of Web 2.0 on students’ lives and their education. (Good to hear.)
• Keeping students interested and engaged in school is the top priority for Web 2.0 in American schools.  (I’m still with you.)
• The majority of district administrators believe that student use of Web 2.0 should be limited to participation on approved educational Web sites. (Well, that would depend on what those are. If you’re excluding all social media, this is where I take an out.)
• The majority of school districts ban social networking and chat rooms while allowing prescribed educational use for most of the other Web 2.0 tools. (Hmmm. This needs to be defined clearly. I can envision an assignment in which I want my students to collaborate with students from another continent, and this would be prohibited because we can’t use Ning or Twitter. Close monitoring is the key here. If the school cannot be confident in its ability to monitor whom students are contacting or what the students are doing, then maybe it’s not ready for implementation. However, that would raise other questions about why the school cannot properly monitor its students online activities.)
• While curriculum directors report low levels of general use of Web 2.0, they describe significant opportunities in curricula and teaching materials. (Anywhere there is internet access there is an “opportunity.”)
• Curriculum directors reported that Web 2.0 will be used most effectively in social studies, writing, science, and reading at all grade levels. (Why not math? Why NOT math? Art? Music? PE? Any subject? The opportunities for collaboration and networking are endless.)
• The use of these tools in American classrooms remains the province of individual pioneering classrooms. (Why?)
• Web 2.0 is outpacing the capacity of K-12 education to innovate. (I’m sure that’s true.)
• District administrators, the persons responsible for the decision-making on Web 2.0 in schools, are more passive than active users in the Web 2.0 space. (That may be an understatement. The probable fact is that most school administrators are not utilizing web 2.0 tools so how could they be expected to fully understand their massive utility?)

…

“From Facebook and other social networking applications to wikis, blogs and digital media, children in the United States are fully engaged in the use of Web 2.0 tools outside of the classroom. The study is encouraging since it shows that school leaders believe that Web 2.0 collaborative applications expand the resources available for classroom learning, but it also reveals that use of these technologies inside the classroom is often constrained by a number of factors.” said Keith R. Krueger, CEO of CoSN. “Our schools must better align the reality of the technology-rich world in which our students live outside of school with the learning experiences they have in the classroom each day.”

Nothing to add there. Amen.

U.S. schools need to get serious about promoting and implementing new learning tools and a new mindset geared toward collaboration and networking on a global scale, or they will get left behind.

As a follow up to my previous post on Twitter’s classroom applications, I touted the microblogging service as a nice agent for collaboration but struggled to come up with additional uses. In reading a Lifehacker article by Adam Pash, I realize that I may not have given Twitter enough credit for classroom application, especially as a timely search tool.

I’ve been playing around with Twitter Search for a bit, and I do indeed see how this function could be student-useful for finding mounds of information as it happens. The article also sheds light on other possible utilities. Check it out.

I do most of my personal learning and information gathering in the following ways:

• aggregating feeds of interest into my Google Reader
• receiving news alerts of interest on educational and other topics into Google Reader
• searching for articles of interest in Digg
• Facebook–I get lots of good info from my friends, including video which is right on the page
• blogging–this is by far my most professionally valuable activity as it compels me to do research, consider issues, and basically get it right
• Ning groups

For personal and classroom collaboration, I recommend:

• Ning–create your own customized classroom or school network. A one-stop shop for much of what you’ll want to do.
• An online docs sharing network such as Google docs (not preferred due to formatting issues) or, better yet, Box.net
• Twitter (if it’s fully functional)
• Google suite of tools, including Google Docs, Google Sites, etc.
• Email still works
• Ustream for live presentations
• Slideshare for slideshows
• Class blogs for reflection and information
• Class wikis for gathering and making sense of information

Thoughts?

Top 10 Tools for Learners

The current Top 10 list of tools for learners, based on contribution of 47 Learners AS AT 4 APRIL is:

1. Google Search
2. YouTube
3. Firefox
4. Twitter
   Wikipedia
5. Delicious
6. Facebook
   Gmail
   Google Reader
   Skype

Top 10 Tools for Learning Professionals

The current top 10 tools for learning professionals to use in their own professional practice for creating learning “solutions” for others and their own productivity is AS AT 4 APRIL as follows, based on the contributions of 21 learning professionals

1. Delicious
2. Twitter
3. Skype
4. Slideshare
5. Google Reader
6. Google Docs
7. Audacity
   Google Search
   Moodle
   Ning
   PowerPoint
   SnagIt

I’m currently using almost all of these tools, and I’m slowly introducing more of them to my students. Many of the tools have had a profound impact on the way I teach and keep up to date in education, and on the way my students learn and produce.

I might also add Digg to the list as I use it often to find top articles on topics of interest.

It can be a good alternative for students who need help and can

First of all, any school curriculum that does not adequately include teaching learners about the past is no curriculum, in my mind. Moreover, as I’ve been pushing since day one on this blog here and here, it shouldn’t be an either/or proposition. History and the other core subjects are essential; and so is teaching students the skills they need in today’s world. There is time enough for a skilled teacher to fit them both in.