Week 4--Blog Posting #7--Second Life

I tried to find some locations in second life that related to my curriculum area of food and nutrition, but was very unsuccessful. Instead, I tried to search for educational opportunities that interested me.

The first place I found, and my favorite of them all, is Etopia Island. It is an entire world dedicated to green living and education. There is a no flight rule on the island in order to conserve energy, but they have a fantastic train and gondola ride for you to use to get around the island. When you first walk in you can learn about the island and take a sustainability quiz to see how much you know about being eco friendly. One of my favorite parts of the island is the fact that businesses that choose to join this island donate all of their profits to eco friendly charities. There is even a coffee shop that you can buy coffee from and all the money goes to a good cause. The education possibilities of this site are endless! There is an Aquaculture Wastewater Treatment Plant that your students could tour and learn about the science of taking wasteful water and turning it into water for sustaining plant life here on earth. There is also a Sustainable Energy Science Lab produced by Energyteachers.org that teaches students about solar and wind energy. Students can see all the different technologies we, as a planet, will be using now and in the future to get our planet back on the right track! Here are some pictures of Etopia Island:

The second place I found was a Second Life world dedicated to William Shakespeare, called... Shakespeare! When you first enter the world you can see candle light dedications to Shakespeare and his work. The COOLEST part about this world is the actual replica of Shakespeare's Theatre! You can go into it and put on a play yourself or see one of the scheduled plays Second Life has to offer. Educationally, it would be a lot cooler to put on a virtual play of Shakespeare rather than to just read from a textbook in class all day! Check it out:

The third place I found was a place called Lunar Exploration Island. The education possibilities of this site are ENDLESS because there is just no way our students would be able to see and experience was this virtual world has to offer! You can step into a real space station and mission control center to see how it all works. You can listen to presentations on different Space and Aviation topics and the coolest part is the rocket launches where you can actually see a rocket being launched into outerspace!

In many ways, Second Life is a great educational tool. It gives students opportunities that they may never have in real life and it is a great alternative for the old, mundane way of teaching. In an article in USA Today, Beth Sussman interviews several college professors on their opinions of Second Life. One professor, who creates virtual worlds based on literature her students are reading said,"It's another way to interact with me and each other." While many college students say that it is an unnecessary tool if the activity can be done face to face in class, it can be effective for unattainable activities, such as the rocket launch I talked about in Lunar Exploration Island. Other teachers are actually using the Second Life technology as a lesson in itself. In my research I found a teacher, Sara Robbins, who is teaching things like team cohesion, ethnography skills and reflection by having her students create a world in Second Life. So as a summary, for the most part, Second Life is a great tool for social interactions and for educational goals. It gives the students an opportunity to learn in whole new ways and to interact with one another without the nerves of being in a classroom setting. It gives them opportunities for events and activities they may never see, but it is not a tool to be used in all realms of teaching, only those that may not successful as an inclass lecture or activity.

Sources:

Hotrum, M. (2006). Second Life 3 D Educational Tool. Retrieved September 18, 2009 from http://choicelearning.blogspot.com/2006/09/second-life-3-d-educational-tool.html

Sussman, B. (2007). Teachers, College Students Lead a Second Life. USA Today.Retrieved September 18, 2009 from http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2007-08-01-second-life_N.htm

Week 4--Blog Posting #8--Reflections on Blogging

Strengths of Blogging:

In a blog on by Alexandra Rampy on fly4change.com, the strengths and weaknesses of blogging were outlined as a way to promote blogging, rather than criticize it. There are several strengths to blogging as a Web 2.0 tool. Through my research and with support of this blog, I have compiled a list of the strengths I agree with:

1. It is a good outlet for some people to get their thoughts and ideas out

2. It gives those (above) an endless audience to hear those thoughts. People from all over the world can get your RSS feed and see what you have to say today.

3. It helps to support other Web 2.0 tools in order to create more online communities, which are great for networking.

4. It’s cheap and easy to use. You don’t have to pay for print services in order to post your opinion in the opinion section. You just log in and post!

5. Bloggers can have a huge impact on media. News is at our fingertips now with the public weighing in on current issues. If bloggers agree or disagree with something that was said in the public spectrum by a politician, or public figure, it won’t be long until the whole WORLD knows it.

6. There are people doing GOOD with blogging, such as giving people a voice in a world that has silenced them and giving people more information on ways to do some good in their own community.

Weakness of Blogging:

In his blog, Darren Rowse, a pretty popular blogger asked a simple question, “What is wrong with blogging?” and asked his followers to post their comments as and answer to this question. Many of their comments supported my own thoughts as to the weakness of blogging as a Web 2.0 tool:

1. You are putting your thoughts our there for people to criticize, which makes you very vulnerable and could get you into trouble

2. It’s quickly becoming a fad. EVERYONE is blogging; I even had to start a blog for my class making ME a fad. This popularity is causing a lot of redundancy in the blogosphere with many people talking about the same issues using the same sources and RSS feeds.

3. Many people are just jumping on the blogging bandwagon to make money, making the art of blogging meaningless.

4. Because of the fad of blogging, people are getting lazy. If you really want to blog 10 times a day about stuff, at least take the time to make sure you don’t have any typos!

5. With so many people blogging and putting their opinions out there, it is causing the line between fact and fiction to become unclear.

6. “Bloggers tend to seek out controversial and negative angles on every story. Rather than looking for something good to write about, 90% of the time it is criticizing and tearing down.” This comment, made by Dave Bascom, is my biggest pet peeve about blogging. It seems to just be an outlet for people to whine about stuff or criticize others and it is very impersonal in my opinion. I would much rather get into a heated political debate in the comfort of a bar with someone I can see than get into a “text fight” with someone half way around the country!

Sources:

Rampy, A. (2007). Blogging: Finding Magellan In An Identity Crisis. Retrieved September 17, 2009 from http://www.fly4change.com/http:/www.fly4change/blogging-finding-magellan-in-an-identity-crisis/30

Rowse, D. (2005). What’s Wrong With Blogging? Retrieved September 17, 2009 from http://www.problogger.net/archives/2005/05/06/whats-wrong-with-blogging/

Week 3--Blog Post #6--Communities of Practice

The concept of “communities of practice” is relatively new to me, but it makes me think of this new Formative Assessment initiative we have started at my school. In my school, our students are 75% free and reduced lunch, 75% minority and 65% special education. Because of this and of our current administrations lack of progress we have become a Title School this year. Now while it does give us more money for resources, it puts us under the watchful eye of the superintendants. The purpose is to use the money and resources in professional development in order to see major progress in our students’ Basic Skills Test scores. Our administrations solution was to make teachers focus more on formative assessments rather than summative assessments. A summative assessment is like an end of the year exam. It encompasses all of the material for the semester and then tests the student on that material. Formative assessment is assessment at the end of every day. Many teachers do it already by doing KWL charts, Ticket Out the Doors, or even just having a quick class discussion at the end of beginning of class the next day to check for comprehension. With our new Formative Assessment focus we have to turn in a Formative Assessment lesson plan for a lesson we will do the next week. Our principle then checks it and returns it to us so we can then do the results we gained.

Needless to say, we were very excited in the beginning. It actually worked and our excited allowed the students to be excited for the first couple of weeks. We sort of become a community of practice, but it certainly didn’t use the technological Web 2.0 tools I am learning about through FSO. In an article from Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge Online Journal, they outlined the positive aspects of communities of practice.

“Because communities of practice are voluntary, what makes them successful over time is their ability to generate enough excitement, relevance, and value to attract and engage members. Although many factors, such as management support or an urgent problem can inspire a community, nothing can substitute for this sense of aliveness.(McDermott, R. et al, 2002)"

At North, we definitely saw this aspect of “aliveness”. There were less behavioral problems and I could clearly see how the formative assessment practices were helping my own students and more importantly, how I teach. We were put into groups as teachers and told to meet once a week to talk about our progress. My group did so, but it was SO old fashioned. I could see us running out of steam as a school and this morning I received an email stating that we wouldn’t need to turn our forms in until October due to the fact that our principal just didn’t have time to check them. So how could a REAL community of practice concept help us get back on track? Before I give my suggestions, let me share with you a list of 7 Principles of Cultivating Communities of Practice from the Harvard Business School Journal.

1. 1. Design for evolution.

2. 2. Open a dialogue between inside and outside perspectives.

3. 3. Invite different levels of participation.

4. 4. Develop both public and private community spaces.

5. 5. Focus on value.

6. 6. Combine familiarity and excitement.

7. 7. Create a rhythm for the community (McDermott; et al, 2002).

As a school we need to design our practice for evolution by incorporating new technologies. We should be able to use Web 2.0 tools like Google Docs to keep a running log of our formative assessments. Then our administration and other teachers could comment on our forms and even get some ideas from them. We weren’t sharing any ideas or getting perspectives from other teachers, we were just meeting for meetings sake. We also need to allow some teachers to be more or less participatory depending on the week (and much of these problems could be helped by using Web 2.0 tools). Some weeks certain teachers have several meetings, several hall duties AND 180 students to teach. They shouldn’t be punished for not getting their stuff done for Formative Assessment as long as they make up for it by dialoguing with colleagues and getting help when they need it. We need to keep that excitement going with a Professional Development Website or Ning site that can invite teachers from other schools, Formative Assessment authors and professionals, and other teachers BEYOND just our community to help guide our learning. We need to make sure that we aren’t slacking off if it is a bad week, but looking ahead to see how we can do better. With Web 2.0 tools we would HAVE to use planning time to meet and we would need to waste paper to turn things in, we could actually work MORE efficiently and have a better outcome for our own teaching and our students. In this slide show from his blog, Education Innovation, Steve Dale takes the concept of Communities of Practice and really breaks it down for educational purposes! Check it out!

Communities of Practice: Conversations To Collaboration

View more presentations from Steve Dale.

Sources:

Dale, S. (2009). Communities Of Practice: Conversation to Collaboration. Education Innovation Blog. Retreived September 15, 2009 from http://educationinnovation.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/09/communities-of-practice-conversations-to-collaboration.html

McDermott, R., Snyder, M. & Wenger, E. (2002). Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide To Managing Knowledge and Cultivating Communities Of Practice. Harvard Business School: Working Knowledge For Business Leaders. Retrieved September 15, 2009 from http://hbswk.hbs.edu/archive/2855.html

Week 3-- Blog Post #5-- Social Media

As an avid user of social media such as Facebook and Myspace, AND as a teacher, I can see the positive and negative aspects of social media. For myself, personally, I use Facebook and Myspace to stay connected with friends and relatives and have had many amazing experiences using both sites. Just a few years ago I got reconnected with a childhood friend of mine that I hadn't seen since we were 12 years old. Now I go and visit him and his wife every summer and will become the Godmother of their child due in December! Though social networks weren't available yet, my mom and stepdad actually met on a dating website called Love at AOL.com back in 1999. They have been happily married for 6 years and happily together for 10 years now. So for me, social media has had a dramatic effect on my entire life.

I also see the problems associated with social media. As a teacher, I have to be very careful with what is posted to my Facebook and Myspace pages. I set my privacy to make sure only my friends can see my profile and pictures. I also make sure that no one can search me and no one under 18 can contact me. So far these simple settings have worked really well for me. I don't lie about having profiles, but I make it perfectly clear to my students that I will not add them and I make sure there is nothing on my profiles that can come back to haunt me. In his video address to students last week, President Obama, in reply to a student asking how he could become president, said, "“I want everybody here to be careful about what you post on Facebook, because in the You Tube age, whatever you do, it will be pulled up again later somewhere in your life. That’s number one, (Ostrow, 2009).” I think this comment was extremely important for students to hear, not only for their safety in general, but for their future. Social Media is a fantastic tool for networking, but it can also put you in a bad position when applying for a job, even college! In an article on Inventorspot.com, it is stated that More than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook…daily. That is a lot of content about you that could be just "floating" around!

Here is a really funny video about Social Media Addicts:



Sources:

Callari, R. (2009). The Stats On Social Media Today Will Astound You! Retrieved September 10, 2009 from http://inventorspot.com/articles/social_media_stats_kagan_fisch_mcleod_qualman_31540

Ostrow, A. (2009). Obama To Kids: Want To Be President? Be Careful On Facebook. Retrieved September 12, 2009 from http://mashable.com/2009/09/08/obama-advice-to-kids/

Week 2 -- Blog Post #4 -- 21st Century Skills & Lifelong Learning

Just to give you a good perspective on all opinions of the 21st century phenomenon, here is an article from Washington Post writer, Jay Mathews. He makes a good point to those of us teaching in inner city schools. He states, "How are millions of students still struggling to acquire 19Th-century skills in reading, writing and math supposed to learn this stuff?". Now while I may not completely agree with the statement, it does have some value. Many of my students still struggle to read and write at their grade level (75% of our students are special education with IEP's for reading, writing and math) and score in elementary and middle school levels for the statewide exam. Not to mention the fact that many 21st century skills initiatives are based on using technology in the classroom, which we do not have. Most of our students don't have a computer at home let alone Internet access, only 5 video cameras for school use and that is it. There is just no way for me to teach them to create a video when we just don't have those resources. 

Are we supposed to ignore this important implementation when trying to teach our students skills that may be beyond their capabilities our resources? NO! But we do need to make sure we are teaching these skills in an alternative manner. I know for myself as a foods teacher, the fact that I can make my content relevant immediately gives me a huge advantage, but I also need to make sure I am taking it to a new level. The skills I teach are lifelong skills and basic adult living skills, but I need to do more. I try to teach my students about time management through completing labs, problem solving skills if they mess up a recipe and have to fix it. The simple things, but something new is my daily formative assessments where students have to answer the question of the day in order to see if they actually learned something. Sometimes it is a reflection of their behavior, sometimes it is comprehending a large concept or small concept, but it still teaches them to reflect upon their learning. This not only helps with 21st century skills, but also the concept of being a lifelong learner. We take many breaks through the day to just stop and reflect on why are doing this and what am I supposed to be learning. In an article in the Urban Advocate (a newsletter produced by the National School Board Association) they examined how urban schools can still meet the needs for 21st century skills without the resources of other schools. Del Stover states, "students need to learn the fundamentals, but also realize they can find their own solutions. That's a huge change where students have more of a role in their own learning." This is something all teachers should be doing daily, but it is even more important in order to prepare our students for their futures and help them to become life long learners. 

Sources: 

Mathews, J. (2009). The Latest Doomed Pedagogical Fad: 21st Century Skills. The Washington Post. Retrieved September 10, 2009 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/04/AR2009010401532.html

Stover, D. (2008) How Can Urban Schools Falling Short With Basics, Add Yet More To The Curriculum. The Urban Advocate. Retrieved September 10, 2009 from http://www.nsba.org/SecondaryMenu/CUBE/Publications/UrbanAdvocate/UASummer2008.aspx

Week 2 -- Blog Post #3 -- Media Literacy

A really great resource for teachers relating to Media Literacy is the Center for Media Literacy (www.medialit.org). It has tons of topics and resources relating to Media Literacy, but in relation to the arts, film, advertisements, assessment, even stereotyping. The best part is the resources and lesson plans relating to particular curriculum areas. If you click on your area it gives you a link to lesson plans for all age groups. It gives you PDF links for all of their books relating to media literacy as well as more resources for Professional Development.

I really enjoyed learning about the Tinkering School on the TED video for this assignment. It reminded me of another alternative school I read about and presented on in college. It is called the Edible Schoolyard (ESY) at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkley, California. At this school they have a one acre organic garden that the STUDENTS tend to and grow organic produce for the school kitchens. The school has traditional teachers and teacher's associated with the ESY platform that actually integrates all aspects of the horticulture process into traditional curriculum. Students experience culture, history, language, ecology, and mathematics through the preparation of food. Now while this may not relate to Media Literacy, I think Media Literacy is a relation of 21st century skills that we need to give our students. Some of the skills talked about in FSO were play through experimentation and collective intelligence by working as a group. I know we are supposed to be talking about technology all the time, but I just wanted to take a break for a second and show a school that is doing something that is NOT technology based... something that is fundamentally simple, but can still have many of the benefits of media literacy and 21st century skills. In a garden school, students must be able to problem solve, have critical thinking, experiment, work collaboratively and really put their heart and soul into something. I think it is an amazing new, but old, way to look at schools and untraditional curriculum. 

Here is a CBS video clip featuring famous chef, Alice Waters, who helped create the Edible School Yard!!!! (As a foods teacher... I am just so in love with this concept!)

Sources:

Center For Media Literacy (2007). Resources. Retrieved September 10, 2009 from http://www.medialit.org

Chez Pannise Foundation (2009). Edible School Yard. Retrieved September 10, 2009 from http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/

Week 1 - Blog Posting #2 - Learning 2.0

I absolutely loved this video on A Vision of k-12 Students Today. It was simple, but to the point, and highlighted what many teachers and schools are missing in student learning. The concept of Learning 2.0 which incorporates new Web 2.0 technologies into traditional learning in order to create higher learning and achieving for our students.

As teachers, it is our duty to prepare our students for the future and right now the future is shifting to a new paradigm of giving our students 21st century skills, skills to make them successful in our ever changing world around us. In our textbook, it clearly states on page 26 that, "today's students are no longer the people our education system was designed to teach," and they, "think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors." As a young teacher, many might think I have an advantage in all of this, but believe me I don't. School has changed DRAMATICALLY just in the last 6 years of me graduating from high school. We didn't iPods and text messaging and we wouldn't dare bring our gigantic cell phones our during the school day. We didn't have MySpace or Facebook only the traditional AIM chat platform. Students today have a million different things coming at them at the same time without anywhere to put that energy into their education. This is why we, as teachers, must change our way of thinking and learning in order to give our students the best education possible for THEM, not US. Check out this video called "Shift Happens" it is quite scary to think about, but what's even scarier is that it is almost 4 years old and they are in the works to create an updated version with even scarier statistics!

Research shows that students use technology not only to communicate, but to learn and they know that they need to prepare themselves for the new job market. They think differently, but they aren't dumb. If you go into any classroom and ask the students how they like to learn, you are going to surprised if you think its just letting them watch a movie or do a poster project, students want to create, REALLY create, and use new tools they may not be familiar with (or in some case technology they are MORE familiar with than their teachers). We, as teachers, have always been told to make the content relevant to our students, but we also have to make the WAY we PROJECT the content to be relevant to them!

Sources:

Fisch, K. & McLeod, S. (2003). Shift Happens. Retrieved on September 8, 2009, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jWujAmLjS4

Solomon, G. & Schrum, L. (2007) Web 2.0 New Tools, New Schools. (pp. 26-27). Eugene, Oregon: International Society for Technology in Education.