The Wired Classroom

While I wasn’t able to make it to NECC, many of my Cooperating School District colleagues were able to, as well as my v/c community friends. Roxanne Glaser and Janine Lim are in San Antonio, Texas, and they are updating their respective blogs with all the stuff that is taking place! To check in on what’s going on, visit VC Rox and Videoconferencing Out on a Lim. Janine has several interviews linked on her blog with content providers, including Tonya Muro and Lisa Inks from Global Nomads Group. Roxanne & Janine, thanks for being so thorough and timely with your NECC blog posts!

 Janine Lim and Sue Porter talk about Read Around the Planet

(Don’t be confused by my screen shot (I liked the picture)!
Please click on “talk” above to see the clip).

To read up on NECC, visit http://www.necc2008.org/.

Today was the Boundless Learning in Videoconferencing tele class. Districts represented were Hazelwood, Ritenour, Francis Howell, Normandy, and Parkway. During the day, participants learned about videoconferencing- everything from the equipment to programs to funding. We connected the class to three content providers- across town, across state, and across the country! Saint Louis University (AIMS), The Discovery Center in Springfield, and the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY all provided v/c demos, sharing what they bring into classrooms. In addition to learning about different kinds of content offered, participants learned where to find programs and the best ways to schedule them. 

We told participants where to find free videoconferences (government agencies like Library of Congress and NASA). Multipoint versus point-to-point were covered, as was “upon request” and set times- common buzzwords. Participating teachers happened to be in New Links to New Learning districts, so we also shared what membership means. Of course, we gave them time ask questions, to click around the Moodle, to check various v/c content provider databases, and to skim all those v/c blogs out there!

K12 Online Conference is a free, collaborative, world-wide program- created by educators, for educators. If you click on the orange box above, you’ll go directly to the website where you will find a lot of information! 2008 is the third year for the October conference and presentations are still needed, according to the site: “this is our second call for proposals for the third annual “K12 Online Conference” for educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice.” The deadline for submissions as been extended to July 11.

A little history: in 2006 and 2007, David Warlick was the keynote, presenting “Derailing Education: Taking Sidetrips for Learning” and “Inventing the New Boundaries”. On the website, you can click around and learn how to get professional development and graduate credit for participating in the K12 Online Conference. There’s a section for “first timers” and a link to the Ning set up by participants. Sounds interesting! All presentations will be archived online, and the conference has a Twitter account to update interested parties. You might want to take a few minutes and click around the website and see what they’ve done, and what they plan to do, and what you can do with Web 2.0.

We’ve set up the following dates/times for Pat McKissack’s upcoming videoconferences. Pat is an award winning author who has written over 100 books! She does three part series, the first session always with teachers, the second and third with students. For more details and descriptions on the interactive programs, visit www.authorvisit.wordpress.com.

Winter Holidays Around  the World 
November  4, 2008-  4 pm
November  25, 2008-  9:30  or 11 am
December  16, 2008- 9:30  or 11 am

Creative Writing
Fall dates/times:                        Spring dates/times:
November 11- 4 pm                  February 24- 4 pm 
November 25- 1 or 2 pm           March 3- 9:30 or 11 am 
December 16- 1 or 2 pm           March 17- 9:30 or 11 am

Fact vs. Opinion with Arlene Zarembka
February 17, 2009 -  4 pm 
March 3, 2009-  1 or 2 pm
March 17, 2009-  1 or 2 pm

You’ll note that we are offering Creative Writing once in the spring, and once in the fall. We are also going to bring back the Historical Fiction/Biography series, but we haven’t set those dates- yet- but check here and at Pat’s blog, Can You Imagine? for updates. All times listed are central- Pat videoconferences live from St. Louis, Missouri at Cooperating School Districts. The cost for each series is $650 for New Links to New Learning members, and $750 for non-members. For information on New Links to New Learning, click here.

 While Martha and Stacey are in the podcasting class today, Ruth is  attending a week long training with Dr. Jim Knight. His area of focus  is instructional coaching. Dr. Knight is from the University of Kansas’ Center for Research on Learning.  According to its website, “Instructional coaches adhere to three core principles: Choice, dialogue, and knowledge in action.” Also, “Instructional coaches are on-site professional developers who teach educators how to use proven instructional methods. To be successful in this role, coaches must be skilled in a variety of roles, including public relations guru, communicator extraordinaire, master organizer and, of course, expert educator.”

Today Ruth reports Dr. Knight has discussed the complexity of change, and how to approach change. She said he’s emphasized that people are willing to make change, but often do no commit to sticking with the change, and that’s as important- it has to be integrated (and maintained!) to be sustainable. She’s really excited about the training. We’ll report back more throughout the week. In the meantime, check out the website:
http://www.instructionalcoach.org/.

We have a really cool class coming up in mid-July about online communities and how you can integrate them into your classroom. What a great way to get students engaged! As you know, students are participating in online communities outside of school everyday. They text and instant message with their friends and update their blogs.

How can you as an educator, get in on using these devices in the classroom? Blogs, wikis, chat rooms, discussion boards, and classroom management systems— find out what these are all about & how you can take advantage of them as learning tools. Don’t shy away from these Web 2.0 applications! During this course, you will learn the essentials of how to create online educational communities to meet your students’ needs. And think about those needs inside and outside of school: students experienced in working in collaborative online environments have the advantage when entering the workforce.  During the workshop, participants will examine exemplary online communities & discover what makes them effective.

Participants will be able to create their own blogs and/or discussion boards for use in their classrooms- how very 21st century! When does 21st Century Learning Tools: Online Communities take place? Over two days, July 14 from 9 am to 4 pm and the class wraps up July 16, running 9 am-12 pm. The class costs just $153 for a CSD member. Not a member? The class is $229 for you. In addition to learning all of these tools, you can earn one graduate credit. For details and registration, visit the tele website.

Stacey Franks showed me this great website- www.learninghand.com- where you can find educational podcasts in all subjects from around the world. Very cool! Please take a moment to click around the website. Tony Vincent has put learninginhand.com together. Check out his blog, too, you’ll learn what he has been up to and what he has planned when it comes to handheld computing, podcasts, iPods and other mobile devices! As Tony says about podcasting, “Remember, you don’t need an iPod or handheld to be a part of podcasting–you can listen right from your web browser. Whatever personal device you may use to listen to podcasts, learning is certainly in hand!”

http://dancingelephantstudio.com/visualart/

Our videoconference last month with author and illustrator (& St. Louis native!) Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw was extremely well received. During the interactive program, she mentioned her website was being updated and would soon have some great interactive features for students to use with their parents and teachers. We just got word that the new website is up!

According to Jenny Sue, “I have added so much to the visual art side of dancingelephantstudio.com, including a ‘books’ section, 3 illustration portfolios and process/work posts within the illustration section, a slide show of my personal work, a new studio tour with lots more to see, and miscellaneous ‘fun’ including My Travelin’ Eye activity downloads and a kid’s travelin’ eye + fashion patch gallery! I also added an on-line store and have my Oopsy Daisy canvas reproductions available as well as other art! My old blog (at blogspot) is imported into my site, too, so reset your bookmarks! The coolest thing about my new site is that it’s easy to update, add new work, stories, inspiration, links, etc., so stop in from time to time to see what’s new. You’ll also notice a new home page for dancingelephantstudio.com that posts recent studio news.”  

We’re hoping the next time Jenny Sue comes to town to talk about her work (or enjoy a visit with her family!) she’ll come back to CSD for some more videoconferences!

Morrie Reece from Apple came in today to give the Virtual Learning Center staff a great tutorial on the updated iLife. Here are some snapshots of our professional development day in the tele:

During the course of the day, we put together podcasts, learned how to turn our iPhoto library into a published book, and how to create an iDVD. We also worked with PhotoBooth, GarageBand, iMovie, iWeb, and the Dashboard. Along with some cheerleaders, John Hodgman and Justin Long even made a brief appearance at the beginning of the morning. Just a day in our iLife!

Need a good book to read this summer? Check out New Links to New Learning content provider & St. Louis author Patricia McKissack’s blog, Can You Imagine? for a list of books: www.authorvisit.wordpress.com. Also, look out later this summer for new videoconference dates for Pat’s 2008-2009 schedule. Happy reading!!