Bringing Students on the Blogging Journey

Blogging with students is becoming more common place. The workshop "Blogging in the Classroom" which I attended at the BCATA Conference and an upcoming one at the annual CTABC Convention "Build a Blog from Scratch" suggest interest on the part of educators to implement this Web 2.0 tool.

It was interesting to hear my husband, also an art educator, share at the blogging workshop last week that since he has begun blogging with his students he has noticed an improvement in the quality of their work. He cited the increased audience of (potentially) the whole world as a motivator which gives the content more relevance. This reminded me of a quote by Will Richardson from Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts. and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classroom: "The idea that the relevance of students work no longer ends at the classroom door can not only be a powerful motivator but can also create a significant was in the way [educators] think about the assignments and work we ask of our students in the first place" (Richardson, 2010, p.27).

Here is a great video by a middle school student created on blogging, that gives insight as to why students enjoy the process.

I also appreciate the following resources on how to blog successfully with your students:
20 Reasons Why Students should Blog
8 Tips for Blogging with Students
14 Steps to Meaningful Student Blogging 
30 Incredible Blogs Written By Students

Question: What tips do you have for Blogging with students?

Works Cited:
 Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts. and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

The Art of Technology

Tweetdeck by Sonny Assu

I was able to attend the BC Art Teachers' Conference in Vancouver last week. It was a wonderful opportunity to continue developing my PLN and to explore the relationship between art and technology- two of my goals for this inquiry project. All four key note speakers were very good and several touched on issues of technology in relationship to art.

 Sonny Assu is a contemporary artist who explores the relationship between the art of his aboriginal heritage and the culture of western society. "He infuses his work with wry humour to open the dialogue towards the use of consumerism, branding and technology as totemic representation. Within this, his work deals with the loss of language, loss of cultural resources and the effects of colonization on the indigenous people of North America" (Assu 2010).  idrum: Consumtion is pictured below.

 

Evan Lee spoke of his alternative photography practice which explored first the use of non-traditional cameras to capture images such as a scanner. And also, his experimentation with alternative means of printing images; particularly, found images from the Web. Forest Fire 5, pictured below, from his Forest Fires Series used a found archived photograph which he printed through an ink jet printer on reversed Kodak paper and "painted" to create the final product. His goal being to create a unique image in a world were digital photography and the internet allow images to be easily reproduced or appropriated.

I also had the opportunity to attend some great workshops, including one on Blogging in the Classroom by Anne Pye, a Media Arts Teacher from Nechako Valley, BC. She showed examples of her own class portal blogs and how she uses blogging with her senior Photography students to have them document their work. She offered many helpful suggestions and inspired me to learn how to add drop-down tabs onto my blog pages. It involves writing html code apparently, but gave the blog a very web page feel.

Question: Do you know of any other artists who explore the relationship between art and technology?

Walking Down the Twitter Path

As a result of this course, I have been exploring Twitter as a tool for professional development. I am not tweeting myself just yet (I think I have a bit of stage fright). But, I have been diligent about reading what the TL's I follow have been saying. I have already found some great resources- including my last current event article Finite Pie and today, a great new blog about learning in an online world called Hey Jude. Check out Judy O'Connel's post on building a PLN. She also linked to a great slide share by Ned Potter on the importance of the role librarians in our technology driven world.

The time for Libraries is NOW

View more PowerPoint from Ned Potter

Social Book marking Tools: Recruiting an Information Army

As I continue on this technology journey, I find myself feeling like one of the prisoners from Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" who has only been seeing the reflections on the cave wall and not the whole reality of the world- the Web 2.0 world. I will blame "mommy brain", especially intensified by the twins, for how blind I have been. It honestly feels like I am learning a whole new language and culture, probably because I really am!

This week I focused on exploring Social Bookmarking tools in hopes of finding ways to organize interesting online readings and images relevant to my studies and teaching. I have learned what the "social" part of these tools means and have a clearer understanding of the terms tag and folksonomy (two previously foreign words). I began this process by exploring three tools that I have heard fellow classmates and colleagues talk about a lot: Pinterest, Delicious, and Diigo.

Pinterest reminds me of the Sound of Music's famous song "My Favorite things." It is a visually appealing method of organizing and sharing things on the web that you like (recipes, wedding ideas, decor, fashion finds, lesson plans) by pinning them on a pin board. The way the images are displayed certainly harkens back to magazine clips, photos, recipes pinned to a good old-fashioned pin board above a desk, giving this Web 2.0 tool a nostalgic feel. I also like that the Pin Etiquette section requires that you source content, preferably with links back to original source.

You sign up by requesting an invite to Pinterest and being placed on a wait list. I waited eagerly for my email invitation which then asked me to sign up linking to Facebook or Twitter, as another means of sharing what I like. The site then asked me to select from a list of topics that interested me, such as Art, so Pinterest could recommend who I should follow. You are able to comment on, mark as “like” or “repin” what you see on other people's boards. 

As an art teacher, Art Room inspiration by Karly Shelton was what I had in mind when I first began exploring this site. I needed a place to file all the art ideas I find on the web such as lesson plans, images, you tube videos, articles; as I often come across great art resources, use them, then forget where I found them in the first place. So I created my own art pin board called Art to Remember. After pinning only one resource, I was notified via email that someone had re-pinned it. This felt great! I could extend this idea and create a pin board for each of the art units that I teach. Students could also create pin boards as image-development banks. I also created a Favorite Reads pinboard.

Pinterest's mission points to the benefit of using such tools. “Our goal is to connect everyone in the world through the 'things' they find interesting. We think that a favorite book, toy, or recipe can reveal a common link between two people. With millions of new pins added every week, Pinterest is connecting people all over the world based on shared tastes and interests.” Here is an article from Edudemic on how libraries are implementing Pinterest and a screencast on using Pinterest in the classroom:


Will Richardson in his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tool for Classrooms speaks a lot about the pros of the social element of book marking tools which take "...all of the entries that are tagged the same way and connects them, and connects all of the people who tagged them in the first place" (Richardson, 2010, p.89). This dramatic shift in the Read/Write web allows for a community or army of researchers to develop. Through the use of tags, or personal descriptors of the information, a folksonomy develops, that unlike the more traditional taxonomy method of organizing information, allows the "...added potential of seeing how others might interpret or use resources..." (Richardson, 2010, p.91); potentially connecting one to more useful resources. This is one of the reasons Richardson speaks highly of Delicious and Diigo, both sites that allow for user-centered organization through tagging.

Similar to Pinterest, Delicious is set up to help you search for, store, and share online resources. It does not require an email to register, making it "extremely easy to use with students" (Richardson, 2010, p.98). Instead of creating Boards you create Stacks. Visually the site consists of two columns of information which show the front page and intro text of the web link. You can browse other people's stacks by category such education, entertainment, food, news and politics, staff picks or by topic such as Technology in Education, Valentine’s day activities for preschoolers, or Global Citizenship Education. You can also follow stacks, share stacks, or create a response. And of course, you can create your own stacks. Delicious provides RSS feed for all their tags with simple URLs. Personally, I preferred Pinterest's visual appeal and found it easier to use, but see the value in the capabilities that tagging in Delicious creates.

Diigo was the most impressive tool I encountered in terms of its potential to revolutionize the way I read online. When I began my TL studies, after not being a student at UBC for 10 years, I still printed and highlighted articles manually. I then began reading on my computer, while still taking notes by hand. Diigo provides me with the opportunity to read and take notes online through its Digollet feature (pictured below) that you install directly to your Favorites bar, allowing you to highlight, bookmark, annotate, and share what you find.

As you do this, you create your own library in the cloud which you can access from anywhere to view your personal thoughts on what you read, even after original links are taken down. Diigo claims that this type of active reading results in better retention:"With Diigo you literally have a photographic memory.” Organizing by tags creates a type of filing system, but also connects you to others. This personal information management system can be used on all major web browsers, androids, i phones,and i pads. The video tutorials on this site are very helpful and you can apply for an Educator account through Diigo, which allows you many more free features than the basic free plan does.

Richardson suggests many ways to use Diigo in education, including:

• using RSS to describe to people or tags to maximize your information finding potential
• having students subscribe to a the feed of a particular tag so they automatically receive your links and comments on relevant sites
• individualizing instruction by using student names to tag and by inserting links, questions, or suggestions for them
• creating a class archive where all students can contribute relevant links to a topic of study
• tracking student research by using RSS requiring specific tags
• "sharing information with colleagues" (Richardson, 2012, pp.96)
• growing professionally by "just getting into the habit of saving interesting or useful link..." (Richatfdone, 2010, pp.97)
• adding a Diigo feed to a particular web page such as a library website as a way of "...sharing information with a minimum effort" (Richardson, 2010, pp.97)

I plan to continue using both Pinterest and Diigo, exploring how maximize tags in gaining and sharing information.

In their article "OPACs in the Clouds" Paula L. Webb and Muriel D. Nero explore folksonomy tagging webware including LibraryThing, Penn Tags, Encore and Aquabrowser. They believe that "[d]ue to the increase in usage of social applications and other Web 2.0 technologies, librarians must embrace some new innovations that are beneficial to their users and that promote the library's presence as the center for information" (Webb & Nero, 2009, pp.22). The application of interactive interfaces on the traditional catalog can result in "mini-catalogs" created by the user through tags. I am curious if this is happening in school libraries at all.


Questions: Do you know of any school libraries that take use folksonomy tagging webware? 
What social book marking tools do you use with your students or for yourself?

Works Cited:

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts. and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Webb, P. L. and Nero, M. D. (2009) OPACs in the clouds. Computers in Libraries, 29 (9). pp. 18-22.

Internet Traffic Map

 "I don’t think education is about centralized instruction anymore; rather, it is the process of establishing oneself as a node in a broad network of distributed creativity." Joi Ito

I really like this quote that I read on Will Richardson's blog from Joi Ito in the New York Times, as it echos some of the thoughts I have been processing about learning and the role of the TL lately. The image below,"Internet Traffic Map", is a beautiful illustration of learning on the Web; non-linear, interconnected, communal, expansive, creative.

Internet Traffic Map

Will Richardson challenges educators to ask the following essential questions "...in light of the changes that the Web is bringing to our learning lives":

• What do we mean by learning?
• What does it mean to be educated?
• What is our value in a world filled with content and teachers?
• How do we best help students become patient, self-sufficient, sensitive, intelligent learners?

Some great thoughts to continue pondering on this journey...

Works Cited:

Maritime Museum of British Columbia, Internet Traffic Map. (2007). Retrieved February 11, 2012, from: http://www.museevirtuel-virtualmuseum.ca/index-eng.jsp

A Sherpa in Cyberspace

Since LIBE 461, the idea of being a leader in the area of technology as a TL has been a worry for me. I took LIBE 471 to help me gain more confidence, but this course has really been challenging my role of what it means to be a leader. I really appreciated reading a blog post by Walter McKenzie called “Finite Pie” which explores the definition of success in the world of the web where resources are almost unlimited. McKenzie writes: “In the Information Age, people expect to be engaged, interacting, building common understandings that make a difference in their lives. We need to let go of our finite pie thinking and begin to serve others as connectors and facilitators of the endless possibilities for success.” I feel this article speaks directly to the role of the TL in the 21^st century, particularly in the area of technology. I do not need to know everything (and really couldn't know everything even if I tried!); it's about building community, collaborating, and connecting; acting as a Sherpa in cyberspace. I have had a taste of this type of success lately and it has left me on a high!

I am not able to try a lot of the technologies I am exploring in this course with my own students. Firstly, I am in a .3 contract which does not give me a lot of time with students. Secondly, not being a homeroom teacher means that I have not been assigned any computer lab time and must try to borrow time from other teachers if I wish to use the lab with my art students. So I have been sharing my ideas with fellow teachers and have had the chance to connect two colleagues with new Web 2.o tools.

After a discussion about what I was studying for LIBE 477, the teacher with whom I share a room became curious about Glogster, a tool that allows users to create interactive online multi-media posters one can embed with hyperlinks, videos, music and more. The school premium account is almost free at $2 per year! My colleague explored this tool and used it with his Science students. You can view the student's Glogs on his class portal. I appreciate my colleagues willingness to explore and try new technologies with his students. I hope to try this tool myself.

My husband, also an art teacher, was inspired by my studies on blogging in the classroom and has designed his own blog as a class portal and student gallery. He is now in the process of having his Photography students set up their own blogs as e-portfolios. It felt so great to be able to help my tech savvy hubby with something like this. The only blow to me ego was how much more amazing his blog looks compared to mine!

Although, I am not exploring these technologies with students first hand, I feel I am acting as a TL would in connecting people to resources that enhance teaching and learning. It's a great feeling and also a relief to know that I don't have to master these tools to encourage others to use them- I simply have to expose them to something new. This type of leadership is definitely doable! As McKenzie writes:“To infini-pie and beyond!”

Question: What are your thoughts on the role of the TL in the area of technology?

To Tweet or not to Tweet???

Signing up for Twitter was one of my first assignments for LIBE 461, intended to encourage us to begin developing our Personal Learning Networks. The problem? The only things I knew about Twitter were that a cute little blue bird is its icon and that celebrities tweet as a form of self-promotion. I could not comprehend how Twitter could be used as a form of professional development. So I turned to what I have come to view as a new technology "For Dummies" guide- videos by Common Craft. Here is their "Twitter in Plain English" .

Despite watching this and signing up for Twitter, I felt lost when it came to figuring out who to follow and how to best follow them. I began by following TL's I knew and then, after a key word search, chose other TL's who's tweets appealed to me. However, I must confess, this is where my Twitter journey ended; as I could not wrap my head around how to keep up with the tweets, and what to- or how to- actually tweet myself. This has been a loose end that has followed me ever since, so I decided to come back to the "art of tweeting" for LIBE 477. I was actually recently inspired by a mom friend of mine, a total "hockey" mom, who tweets all the time (particularly at hockey games, of course). She felt so excited when her favorite sport blogger that she follows gave her a shout out! Listening to her talk made me realize, if this mommy friend can do it, so can I! 

Will Richardson in Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tool for Classrooms claims that Twitter, or "micro-blogging" done in 140 characters or less, is a powerful professional development tool. "Following other educators on Twitter creates a "network at my fingertips" phenomenon where people ask questions and get answers, link to great blog posts or resources or share ideas for projects as they go through the day" (Richardson, 2010, p.86). Richardson also describes Twitter as a "running river of conversation" and a type of "sixth sense" (Richardson, 2010, p.86). For these reasons, I am determined to give Twitter another chance.

I still have apprehensions about the use of Twitter or perhaps the misuse of Twitter. See my Current Event #2  "Who Gives a Tweet?" for more thoughts on this. However, I plan to revisit my Twitter subscription and review the list of teachers I am currently following, thoughtfully add to it, and actually begin tweeting myself, in hopes people will begin following me. As far as I know, I currently have one follower; I have to give her something to read! I will reflect more on the use of Twitter as a professional development tool at the end of term. For now, here is a great resource from TeachHUB.com on 50 Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom.

Question: How do you use Twitter in your educational practice?

Works Cited:

Richardson, W. (2010). Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts. and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.