My Great Idea

One of the ways that I share my excitement for educational technology is through graduate online course development. I write ed tech courses for Pearson Higher Ed. This spring and summer I have been busy with a course featuring Web 2.0 technology. I wrote the course and then talked with Pearson's video guru, Vikki Myers, about video content. During our conversation I listed my Who's Who of ed tech Web 2.0 - Wes Fryer; Women of Web 2.0 (Jennifer Wagner, Vicki Davis, Cheryl Oakes, Sharon Peters); Will Richardson; Dave Warlick; Joselyn Todd; and Bill Ferriter. "By the way," I mentioned casually, "most of these people are sure to be at NECC. And they will probably be present for the edu blogger con."

My project manager and her supervisor loved the idea of talking to all these people at one time. So they started making calls and got permission to attend the blogger con and film it. I was so thrilled to be part of the project I could hardly contain myself. My husband listened to my delight bubbling over and even encouraged me to fly out to be there. Unfortunately it was the same day as my daughter's birthday party and I missed her birthday for NECC last year. So I didn't pursue it, but I could hardly wait for the blogger con to arrive and see if there was any buzz on the Web about it. Little did I know the buzz would be about my "great idea" and whether it was great or the ruin of the blogger con.

Some bloggers were mad that Pearson showed up, accusing them(us) of stealing ideas and changing the climate at the blogger con. I was crushed. I only wanted more teachers to be inspired by the great ideas of my favorite ed techies and now it seemed like it had all gone wrong.

I talked to Elaine Roberts the next day and she assured me that blogger con and the conversations there were awesome! Later that day her comments on Wes Fryer's podcast seemed to quiet the storm. I hope in the end this will continue debate about intellectual property, learning communities and commercial enterprises and maybe it will be a great idea after all.

Technorati Tags: necc blog Pearson

Image by Wes Fryer(http://www.flickr.com/photos/wfryer/649225040/)

Joselyn Todd - Web 2.0 Classroom

Web 2.0 Let’s Make Learning a Group Effort

Joselyn Todd
Sam Morris

Nice to see specific classroom application of technology. Gave me opportunity to think of ways to implement in my classroom. Practical implementation of Warlick philosophy.

http://cagroupeffort.pbwiki.com PW: group

Asked a participant to take notes and post them to the wiki (This is an example of what Alan November suggested in his session later in the day.)

Applications that are Web-centric

• GoogleDocs
• Amazon
• CNN – commentary on CNN reporters

The long tail

http://www.judybrown.com/tools.html

http://www.go2web20.net/

web 2.0 awards

Wiki has replaced PowerPoint in Joselyn's class

wikipedia – 9 million pages in 6 years

Ø What if I had the students put their presentations re: pilgrims onto a wiki instead of presenting to the class? Then their parents could see the results and it would be stored for future reference.

Can document who did what in the Wiki history.

Suggestion from the audience – assign a color to each student so you can easily see who contributed.

Joselyn’s wiki about robotics.

Wiki hosts
wetpaint
pbwiki
wikispaces

Let students develop content. Have students develop content about their interests related to the subject area.

Wikis can be moderated.

Blog vs wiki -the most powerful person on a wiki is the LAST person on the wiki. Everyone is on an equal playing field. On blog there is one person who has a higher status. All the others respond to the author.

anne.teachsme.com blogs re: blogging

jmccullers.edublogs.org 3^rd grade

wordpress – students don’t need an email account to create a wordpress blog, can host on your own server and make it available only within the WAN

have students create a screencast to teach each other things.

Technorati Tags: Joselyn_Todd Web2.0 blog wiki NCETC07

Santa Claus is Coming to the Blogosphere

I have spent today enjoying Christmas traditions.

We took my daughters to see Santa this morning. I did some baking and worked on the family Christmas cards (created online with a digital camera) this afternoon. Tonight we listened to Christmas music and then watched Santa Claus is Coming to Town. I was about to go back to the Christmas cards and baking when I stumbled on this. Santa is a blogger!! And he is as prolific a writer as he is a gift giver. Here are a few of his better locations in the blogosphere:

http://hisanta.landsend.com/a/santas_blog/

http://clauschronicles.blogspot.com/2006/12/100-things-about-me.html

http://www.santasjournal.com/journal/

Enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Santa blog Christmas

Image from Flickr Santas by Nouveau

Technorati Tags: Santa, blog, Christmas