Web 2.0 Student Planning

I was visiting Vicki Davis’ latest post and it seems that she has her students doing some Web 2.0 planning. All of their initial plans look great, but I particularly like the first one. It’s a private school wide social network for parents, students, grandparents, and teachers. Facebook, Bebo, and Myspace move over for Vicki’s class! In Vicki’s words,

“The students decided immersive learning is the best. Additionally, they wanted the elementary students to participate. After a meeting with me, I set up
the site, they joined and I made them administrators (yes I did.) They customized the look, added RSS feeds, and have just done a tremendous job. They are in the process of setting up groups for every class.”

My first thought is what a great concept and tool. My second thought deals with safety issues. My last thought on the issue is a question, How long are we going to wait before we get on board and start implementing these technologies for the good of our students? Of course, I realize that we have to make sure that security is in place, but we must also move forward when we are able.

In most cases our curriculums are out dated due to circumstance. What is the circumstance? Most curriculum coordinators know little or nothing about technology. Technology has advanced at such a rapid pace that it has left most teachers, coordinators, and systems behind. Personally, I have to make time to investigate theses new technologies. That’s what I’m doing right now. Then I have to figure out whether or not they apply to my classes and if we can use them safely. This is exactly what Vicki is doing with her students.

Warm regards,

William Bishop (Bill)

Technorati Tags: web2.0, technology, teaching, social_networks, Vicki_Davis, william_bishop, lostjohns,

Laptop Security and FortiManager Article

Dr. Margaret Rice at the University of Alabama brought this article to my attention. Well, I say my attention. She actually posted it for her technology class that I am enrolled in at the University of Alabama. Her class and my Intermediate statistics class at UAB, the web based and IVC courses I am teaching through ACCESS, and my regular teaching assignments have taken a great deal of my time this semester. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t take anything for any of them. I have learned a lot this semester about networking, quantitative statistics, and dealing with web based and IVC students. I am blessed, but busy. Maybe, I can find more time to blog next semester. I guess that I will just have to make the time. There goes my self diagnosis of ADHD again…Sorry...

The article that Dr. Rice pointed out to the class can be found at http://www.thejournal.com/articles/21572. The title of the article is Laptop Security: Covering the bases. From what I can tell the article address many of the issues that my system is facing and some issues that I hope we get to face in the near future. I’d love to get a grant for 3,000 student laptops for my system. Where do we sign up?

More specifically, my system may be interested in FortiManager. According to the article, “FortiManager is an integrated monitoring and management solution, the district receives active reporting from all laptops, regardless of whether they are on or off campus.” In the words of Solis, “We can follow up on exactly where certain laptops are pinging. [and] From there, we get more detailed sketches and actively circumvent any problems by, say, denying access to those IP addresses and/or Web sites." This all sounds pretty cool to me. Maybe someone who stumbles into my blog will benefit from the article. I know that my system is always looking for solutions like FortiManager. I will have to pass the article on to the IT staff at my school.

Warm Regards,

William Bishop (Bill)

Technorati Tags: network security, busy, laptop security, FortiManager, Dr. Margaret Rice, UA, UAB, lostjohns, william_bishop,

Did you know 2.0?

It's lunch and I was checking some of my favorite blogs and low and behold I came across a revised version of "Did you know?" Well, with all of the hype about Web 2.0 why not advance Karl Fisch's video to the same level. Why NOT! That is exactly what happened over the summer. I must have been busy because I am just now coming across the revised version. Well, better late than never. Below is "Did you know? 2.0" Enjoy!



Warm Regards,

William Bishop (Bill)

Technorati Tags: Karl_Fisch, Fischbowl, 21st_century, web2.0, school2.0, classroom2.0, lostjohns, william_bishop

Not oh what! OoVoo!

I received the following comment to my post about Interactive Video Conferencing Classes…

“Hi Bill, Interesting to see your work in this area as I have been looking for similar case studies using free video conferencing.I write for ooVooworld, the unofficial WOM world about the free video chat download ooVoo, and wondered if you think this kind of app is 'the future' as much as the more expensive, supervised systems you discuss here - potentially more democratic and accessible to everyone? Do you have any experiences or opinions of people using applications
like ooVoo in teaching in this way? Many thanks, Molly”

Now, I answered her question and I directed her to Viki A. Davis. I could have directed her to Wesley Fryer or Sheryl Nussbaum-Beech, Patrick Crispen or countless others, but then I got to thinking about her questions and I was wondering if any educators out there are using ooVoo as a teaching application with their classes. Is anyone out there using ooVoo as a teaching tool? My question reminds me of Pink Floyd lyrics “…is there anyone out there?” Let me me know!

Warm Regards,

William Bishop (Bill)

Technorati Tags: ooVoo, free, video_conferencing, classroom2.0, school2.0, wesfryer, Vicki_Davis, Sheryl_Beach, patrick_crispen, william_bishop, lostjohns

Correction about Durff

Mrs. Durff isn’t an English teacher per se. She was nice enough to drop back by the blog and leave another comment and correct my first assumption. Mrs. Durff is like many of the wonderful teachers out there she is busy wearing a variety of hats. In actuality, she is a library media specialist with emphasis on the word specialist due to all of the roles she has to fill within her local school setting.

Mrs. Durff referred to herself as a “gopher,” but based on her blog as well as other entities it was easy for me to ascertain that she was just being modest. She was also nice enough to leave the URL to her professional blog in her comment. It is http://durffsblog.blogspot.com/. She has great quote there by Mr. Lewis. "The next best thing to be wise oneself is to live in a circle of those who are" CS Lewis. Based on her blog role she not only believes in this creed, but she lives by it.

The more than impressive video that I plugged from teachertube about student blogging into my last post is from a teacher in New Zealand according to Mrs. Durff. Unfortunately, I haven’t taken the time to research the video, but I love it nonetheless. It presents student blogging in a positive light. What a great video!

Warm regards,

William Bishop (Bill)

Technorati Tags: teaching, Durff, teachertube, educational_technology, william_bishop, lostjohns,

Blogging: It’s elementary, School 2.0, and Classroom 2.0

Blogging: It’s elementary, School 2.0, and Classroom 2.0

I had the opportunity to sit-in-on a couple of Patrick Crispen’s sessions at the 2007 AETC conference week before last and he had a great presentation on blogging 101 and blogger. You can download Patrick’s presentation on blogging here (It’s in zip format). Although I am very familiar with blogger, I found the presentation worthwhile and even learned a few new tricks and tips. Patrick always does a great job with his presentations. Such is to be expected of a graduate of the University of Alabama! If you are interested in elementary blogging and Patrick’s presentation doesn’t tell you everything you want to know about beginning a blog for yourself or with your classes, you should visit the following links...

E-School News article on Elementary Blogging

A post by Steve Dembo about Elementary Bloggers

A wiki with links to educational blogs

A wiki tied to Alabama Best Practices Center’s 21ST Century Initiative

John Norton’s bookmarks for the 21st Century Initiative (My blogs are here) Wow!

These should be enough to get you started. I would however point out that before you start blogging with your classes you should get your administrator’s approval. You should also make sure that your Acceptable Use Policy is up-to-date. And above all things you need to make sure that you keep your students safety in mind.

You can find a number of tips to help with the things you need to know about blogging at the ABPC wiki. I hope this helps administrators and teachers begin the move toward School 2.0 and Classroom 2.0 if they haven’t already made the move. Enjoy!

Note: In a future post I will discuss my presentation at the 2007 AETC (Plunge into school 2.0 and beyond: But don’t forget your PFDs). I am just waiting for them to get the 2007 presentations uploaded to their website.

Regards,

William Bishop (Bill)

Technorati Tags: blogging, elementary, education, patrick_crispen, blogging_links, abpc, john_norton, 21stCentury, teach42, eschoolnews, lostjohns, blogger, blogspot, aetc, william_bishop