First online collaboration!

Finally got to do a collaborative project with Mary D. and Lisa G. Since the three of us all have at least one sophomore level class, and since at least one of our class periods overlap, we decided to do an inter-class live blog on Coveritlive around an excerpt from an essay that all of the students read. Because two other teachers also teach sophomore level English, they were included, so we ended up with four sophomore level classes plus an upper classmen American Literature class and several teachers all participating throughout the day!

Prior to the discussion, we introduced our students to Bloom's Taxonomy and Costa's Levels of Inquiry and then worked with them on developing higher level questions to use during the blog. I had my students submit the questions to me via a Google form I posted on my class webpage. Google forms are my new thing so far this year; I've been having the students submit a good bit of information that way, and I can see the potential for having them take quizzes that way as well, assuming I can get them on individual computers that day. I've decided that I really would like to become a Google-certified educator... I hope they do another training in Boulder soon!!

It seemed to go well... the blog went live just before the start of school and stayed live until the end of the day; the longest blog session I've ever done. Aside from some technical glitches with getting others signed in, the day seemed to go well, especially once everyone got the hang of it. The students in my room were highly engaged; one remarked that he wished we could do live blogging every day because he was learning so much that day.

The most intense part of it was keeping up with the posts. I have the controls set so that all posts must be approved by me or by another producer (the other teachers involved), so when there are something like 80 kids or so posting, it gets pretty crazy. I've posted some other thoughts on it here on my teacher blog... feel free to check it out and comment if you'd like.

Google is at it again!

Elections tools for teachers
The Mock Election

This year, Google is working with the National Student/Parent Mock Election to get students of all ages excited about the November elections. Students engage in activities to learn about the candidates and issues, then cast mock ballots that are counted along with those of millions of other students across the nation.

This year's Mock Election takes place on October 30, 2008. Enroll your classroom now.

CLAS this spring

I've been invited to be a presenter at the CLAS Regional Spring Conference this March. Subject: the digital classroom in the 21st century. I'm psyched but nervous at the same time. I mean, it's obviously something I'm super enthusiastic about: I'm going to talk about Google Docs, blogging, podcasting, and so forth, but still... it's in front of GROWN UPS, not teenagers! EEEEEKK! (ha ha!)

I'm also looking into the possibility of getting up to that other high school I'd mentioned in an earlier post to train their teachers on digital classrooms. I mentioned the whole thing to Stevi Quate (you know her if you've been involved in the UCD teacher candidate program), who, as it turns out, is familiar with that school and their staff; she "knows people" there, and so is going to look into getting them up to speed as well... stay tuned on that one.

What have I gotten myself into?? ;-)

On a side note, I've recently written an article for an online magazine, Elephant Journal, about digital classrooms. It's the first of a series on education that I've been asked to collaborate on with them. If you're interested, you can check it out here, but you'll likely have to do it at home... last I knew, the SmartFilter blocked it at work. And check out the shirt in my pics. ;-)

Doodle 4 Google

Calling all artists, grades k-12. Google is sponsoring a fun doodling contest complete with lesson plans, idea starters, templates, and prizes. We could have an aspiring student out there who could have their doodle for Google displayed to the world. Check it out. Don't forget to take a look at the video of the original Google doodler, 29 year old Dennis Hwang, what a cool job he has.

Google Reader Publish to Share

Regina Stewart recently mentioned that she was looking for some good math blogs. Several comments mentioned blogs or websites that were relevant. This got me thinking: if a student was interested in a topic how do we best feed that student's interest? How do we use modern technology to do this?

I decided to create a published webpage of blog entries using Google Reader and method Will Richardson teaches and John Albright has blogged about. Google Reader allows you to "share" any entry in the Reader bin. Once the blog entry or other content is "shared" a static webpage is create with the content. The content can then be viewed like a webpage. A button for this shared content can also be placed on your website, blog, or wiki.

Here is an example using math blog content. The person publishing the content through Google Reader (me in this case) reads through the blog readers and then decides which entries are worth sharing (and presses the share button). Those shareable are automatically published to the shared website. This could be really useful for a principal or department chair to quickly and easily share relevant and previewed content with colleagues. It could also be a cool way for teachers to create shared content for students.

Screencast with SmartBoard

On May 17, 2007 a screencast of Google.com math features was created during the Global Learners Professional Development. The screencast was captured within SmartBoard software and then uploaded to youtube. I have embedded the video here as an example of how this can be done. The video could be improved by using better examples. However, I can see the value to our students of screencasts just like this. Imagine a scenario where a student missed class or just didn't follow what your explanation of an Algebra problem. If the screencast of the problem being worked were captured and loaded to a class blog the student could go back at any time and review. Anyone interested in trying this? If you are post the result on this blog.

Please Block Google

Actually, I oppose blocking Google. Wesley Fryer over at the Tech Learning Blog has excellent post today describing how districts that choose to block Google entirely (and all the excellent applications that go with it) are actually putting their students at a disadvantage.

Check out Wesley Fryer's post.

What do you think?