NECC2008

Notes from Edubloggercon, especially discussion from Web 2.0 for professional development: look at ustream Ning Classroom 2.0 (they're saying it failed?) Summize - real-time search of Twitter Social networking should be like "public transportation" - reliable, easy, new bus every 15 minutes Important: the **Repository nature** of social networking - "why not just ask another teacher down the hall?" - because your Q&amp;A has value and is worth keeping a record of.

Offer them what the tool offers- give them "the frame" - then show them the tool. Put another way, ask what problem they'd like to solve and then show them the tool that makes it possible. Don't get stuck in featuritis.

Second Session: Social Networking in the classroom: Think.com Ning

(Twitter is apparently more useful than I'd thought... Bethany Smith is the AD of Learning Technologies at NC State says Twitter (What does she say? Ask her - you've got her card.)

Twitter client: Twhirl

Vicki Davis: private NIng for classroom, another for the school, and a number of public ones - start with a private one to get them acclimated, set standards, be and feel safe - call them "educational networks" not "social networks" - inappropriate? You're **out** - then go public gradually

Many here talk about perceptions of the "unsafe" perceptions of "the internet" - I think the perception of the Wild West porn-heavy internet is hard to fight and we're not helped by the fact that alarmist stories are "news", and internet success is not.

Session: If the Leaders don't get it, it's not Going to Happen
Well, what are their needs? As mentoned above, if they don't see what it offers, what current problems it solves (and sometimes elegantly), then they're going to continue missing it.

Chris Lehman, (principal): manage up! teach your boss how you wanted to be managed... he spends a lot of time articulating his vision so his bosses are not surprised by what he does or what he wants.

Asst Principal: managing down is important too. Multitasking and all the things the kids do; if teachers have questions about why kids are disengaged, we shouldn't ask why.

Help leaders remember they're learners.

School principal: Went to Leadership 3.0 conference - groundbreaking. Made a difference for leaders; need more small conferences for admins and leaders to be addressed more directly. "What does it mean to prepare a student for the 21st century?" Many leaders haven't really thought about it.... They're thinking about NCLB, resegregation, special ed, avoiding controversy, not angering parents...

Question : Why are leaders leading if they don't get it? Because Administrators are valued over teacher/leaders... ask yourself what you want from your leaders.

Admins and principals are caught in the middle, though. What do they really need?

(Again:) What do we want to accomplish? Don't set yourself up as a "technology person" when it's (possibly) alienating. Try to help them see the benefits of the tools: show them how a tech tool, Web 2.0 tool, can make specific parts of their job easier, can solve one of their problem. This will show that a) we "tech folks" understand their issues, and that these tools can make them more effective administrators and educators.

"If the kid can't pass the test, it doesn't matter. Show that teacher how that tech tool can help her help kids pass those tests."

Kevin Honeycutt: Tell teachers/admins/parents: Don't let your students grow up alone on a digital playground! That is digital illiteracy.

Teacher: did an end run around his principal direct to county level and brought them in to show them what he's doing - it got his principal's attention in a positive way.

Demand administrators and leaders know the technology as much as they know assessment or other important aspects of their jobs, says one man. (He's right right right.) "Innovation, not change!"

One of the key things I have gotten from this session is the need to go to Ed Policy Studies in my college and work with someone about more and better technology integration and training for their grad students and professional development: the Principals Center, etc. Miles Irving is a possibility; there are others. Must look into this.

Web 2.0 in Teacher Education
Start with tools the teachers know....

Wesley Fryer's Key tools: social bookmarking: delicious and diigo for sharing and archiving good things you find RSS collaborative docs - google apps, wikis, etc text messaging - skype, etc

Don't tie yourself in discussion to a tool, tie yourself to a metaphor (chuck wagon and cooking an its ingredients, etc)

Don't teach the tool, teach why this tool can make a difference for you

Warlick: Start with social/educational networking - teachers talking with and teaching each other; peer mentoring It ought to be a given that every classroom collaborate with an international classroom, synchronously and asynchronously. People do need to change what they're doing.

(Follow up with Bethany from UNC - have to have to have to)
[|Cognitive apprenticeship]

Bethany is looking for new classroom management styles for one-to-one teaching, when all the students have laptops in class.

Center (a la UT-Austin) that provides tech support and professional development


 * Teachers want to teach their curriculum; we want them to use technology better. How to make these stars align?**

How to get blogs in our college? Use **something** in the university that they can use out in the classrooms: wikispaces, wordpress, blogger, rather than some sort of closed custom-made stuff.


 * Tie these tools and methods to the teachers' goals!!!**

Don't teach wikis teach collaboration; don't teach blogging, teach writing online.

See K12 online conferences! It's all online, showing how these tools are being used in classrooms in that way.

(Wesley Fryer is a smart guy; follow him.)

Toolbelt theory: find the technology tool for the job at hand; learn how to use the "tool type" so they will know what similar things they can use, as well as how to evaluate a tool for their use.

Railroads and highways as metaphors for the internet (of course) - but now we're still teaching folks how to drive on these roads... lead by expectation: higher expectations means things will come to meet those expectations


 * Idea: what if colleges of education provide ongoing hosting for all the teachers they graduate - if you're a GSU student-teacher, for example, you get hosting on our servers for as long as you teach.

"EduPunk" not "social networking" but ways to network and collaborate."

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Kristin Hokanson's Copyright session was good, included a brochure from American Univ's Center for Social Media on "Copyright Confusion"

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From Web 2.0 Guru: http://web20guru.wikispaces.com

Mixbook Vawker gabcast

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== Ning discussion with Bethany She follows Steve Hargadon's Classroom 2.0 Ning