Web 2.0 Workshop with Tom Daccord -- Day 3

Tom started our final day with a mini-demo of Skype. He doesn’t necessarily use Skype a lot with his students, but as a tool (also free) that allows direct, real-time communication and collaboration to pretty much anyone who can access an online computer that has a microphone and/or built-in camera. Fire up Skype, dial the Skype-capable person at the other end and chat away! I suspect we’re already using Skype here at Lakeside with our GSL trips. But the potential for teachers or students talking directly with fellow scholars all over the world with a tool like Skype is pretty exciting.

Tom used Skype to call Patrick Woessner. He talked to us about social-networking tools. The focus was on two specific social-networking sites: Twitter and del.icio.us. Twitter provides a way for people to let other people know what they’re doing. Not only can you leave notes about what you’re doing, but you can ask to follow other people who are signed up with Twitter. By following other people on Twitter, you get to receive their “twitters” which keeps you apprised of what they’re thinking about or doing. I had heard of Twitter before this conference – it seems like one of the current buzzwords – but I had never taken a look at it. I decided to join and right away subscribed to the postings of a number of Twitter folks who are connected with educational technology (including Tom and some of the folks listed above). I’ll be interested to see where the twitterings take me.

del.icio.us is a website where one can store, tag, and provide access to lists of URLs. Because URLs you store in del.icio.us are online, it allows users to access their personal collection of URLs (bookmarks) with any computer that offers online access and a browser. Beyond simply listing URLs one wants to keep, del.icio.us invites the user to “tag” each site with multiple one-word descriptors (i.e. biology, useful, humor, instructional, grammar, podcast, tutorials, Web 2.0, etc.). One’s entire URL collection is organized with these descriptors so that by clicking on, say, “Web 2.0”, all the URLs that were tagged as Web 2.0 will be listed. It’s also possible to attach a lengthier description to each URL stored on del.icio.us. All of the above is handy enough, but an additional thing del.icio.us offers is an indication of how many other people have listed each URL in a person’s collection. So every URL indicates how many other del.icio.us members have chosen to save the same URL. The thinking here is that, by social networking people’s bookmarks, the more people who store and tag the same URL, the more likely that that particular site will prove to be especially useful…..right? In del.icio.us it’s also possible to view other user’s entire collection of stored URLs (bookmarks), as long as the user allows her/his collection to be shared. This can give one insight into where other people are finding useful information. With del.icio.us it’s not so much the ability to store bookmarks -- though that’s really handy -- it’s the sharing of sites and information that can be so powerful in learning and research.

After the Skype conversation, Tom moved into a sort of gadget phase, showing us some hardware that is on his radar.

First came the FlipVideo camera. We have actually FlipVideo camcorders at my school this past spring for a 7th grade English script-writing/movie-making project. Therefore, I have some sense of the Flip’s many strengths and some of its possible downsides, at least based on our experience. However, one can’t escape the handiness factor: the small size, no-more-DV-tape-hassles to deal with, and pretty rugged construction.

Next he showed us a Kindle (an eReader from Amazon). I believe Tom indicated that he doesn’t use the Kindle in class so much but does use it for some of his reading and/or studying, particularly in his travels.

The last item in today’s hardware show-and-tell was an iPod. It sounded to me like they have class-sets of iPods at Nobles and the school equips each with a microphone (such as the Griffin iTalk Pro [around $50]). He shared some imaginative uses of the iPod such as a language teacher hanging pictures/paintings in the hallway, having verbal descriptions recorded (in the foreign language) on the iPod, and students having to listen to the description and match it with the picture they see before them. Clearly iPods are not only handy in storing songs or simply used for entertainment, but can have many uses in the classroom.

Returning to online Web 2.0 resources, Tom next showed us VoiceThread, another free tool. This one allows a picture (or multiples to form a slide show) to be uploaded. Then commentary, instructions, or whatever you wish can be added to accompany the visuals. Then others can be invited to view and listen to a VoiceThread and, if they so choose, record their own response, observation, or comment. VoiceThread collects all the comments for each “thread” and each user can listen to the comments of all the other contributors to the VoiceThread. One obvious use for a VoiceThread might be in art courses, where samples of an artist’s work make up the slideshow. Students are then asked to view each painting and record their personal observations about each work and listen to the comments by their classmates. Historical pictures could prompt VoiceThread discussions in History. It would be pretty easy to produce a how-to tutorial with a series of screenshots for technology. And so on. VoiceThreads can even be imbedded in a blog making it easy for people who view a person’s blog to access content such as a VoiceThread.

From here, Tom moved us on to a GarageBand tutorial. GarageBand is a Mac application, part of the iLife suite that comes as a bundle of applications when you buy a Mac (so, in a sense, it’s free, too). I had access to an iMac in the lab we were using for the workshop, so I followed along with the tutorial. However, at my school, we are essentially a Windows OS site only. Unfortunately, there is no comparable tool in Windows. So, while not a tool I can readily use in my school situation, it was very interesting to get an idea of what GarageBand can do. Tom took us through the steps to create a podcast using GarageBand. In addition to recording our narration, GarageBand makes it incredibly easy to add music and various effects. Unlike producing a podcast using Audacity, adding the soundtrack is easy to do with the built-in sound tracks that come with GarageBand. And it’s important to note that the music/sounds that GarageBand can provide are copyright-free. Therefore, there are no worries about checking for permission to use the music or searching around online for public domain music, as you need to do if you’re wanting a soundtrack for the podcast you’re producing using an application like Audacity. Audacity is a great (free) sound editor, but it doesn’t come with any music of its own. Tom pointed out how to configure iTunes to convert incoming files to .mp3, which means it’s very easy to produce a podcast in GarageBand and listen to it in something like iTunes.

For those of us who are PC users, Tom next gave us a short tutorial on Audacity showing the relative ease of recording and editing. He pointed out some of the useful tools when producing podcasts, such as adding silence, but the emphasis was the fact that Audacity (yet another free application) is pretty easy to use if not as versatile (in Tom’s opinion, at least) as GarageBand.

By now our last day of the workshop was nearing its end. Tom returned to some topics from earlier in the sessions and a few additional new ones.

He reminded us about Classroom 2.0 which built as a Ning. I’m not quite sure I fully understand what a Ning is but I know that it apparently allows people to create online social networks of their own around areas or subjects of interest. This is certainly intriguing and I will want to explore what a Ning has to offer soon.

Tom showed us Bubbl.us and Gliffy which can be thought of as alternatives to Inspiration. In both cases there is a free version available.

A social-networking, research, and bookmark site called Diigo made a brief appearance. Though we did not devote much time to Diigo in our waning minutes, I think this will be something well worth revisiting.

Tom started winding down with another brief “check this out”……this time for Google Earth. I’ve heard quite a few references to Google Earth already and know that this amazing resource is prime territory for my further exploration.

To some extent, the last three days are a blur. As I re-read and reflect on what we did and where we “went” (online, of course!), there is so much we’ve been exposed to and explored thanks to this workshop. Tom Daccord is a gifted and very effective teacher. I’ve not read his and Mr. Reich’s book cover to cover yet but I have read through sections. I’m not quite ready to pronounce Best Ideas for Teaching with Technology the educational technology book of the year yet but I must say that my initial impression is that this book is filled with ideas, strategies, websites, and lesson plan ideas that pass the “this will work” teacher test. Plus I find the book to be written in such a way to get me to think of my own take on how to use the tools they write about. In other words, it stimulates new thinking about teaching, learning, and curriculum. What more could one ask for?

I count myself lucky to have been able to attend Tom Daccord’s Web 2.0 workshop. As I’ve already noted, Tom is a very effective presenter. This workshop was very well-organized; Tom thought-through carefully what he wanted to cover and how best to do it (workshop agenda available here). It was a great three days at the Noble & Greenough School under Tom Daccord’s tutelage. I learned a lot!!

People of interest mentioned by Tom during the workshop whose writing and thinking about educational technology is worth tracking:
• Ben Schneiderman
• Daniel H. Pink
• Kathy Schrock
• Will Richardson
• Andy Carvin
• Nancy Willard
• Patrick Woessner


Sites we used or were introduced to in this workshop:

Wikispaces -- http://www.wikispaces.com/ -- free wiki sites. Registration required but otherwise free for educators(and no ads).
Flat Classroom Project -- http://flatclassroomproject.wikispaces.com/ -- a Wikispaces wiki founded by Vicki Davis (Westwood Schools, USA) and Julie Lindsay (Qatar Academy, Qatar). To quote from their site: “One of the main goals of the project is to 'flatten' or lower the classroom walls so that instead of each class working isolated and alone, 2 or more classes are joined virtually to become one large classroom. This will be done through the Internet through Wikispaces and Ning.”
EdTechTeacher.org -- http://edtechteacher.org/index.html -- a new online initiative by Tom Daccord and Justin Reich and dedicated to helping teachers use technology in their teaching with lesson plans, publications, workshops, and much more
Blogger -- http://www.blogger.com/ -- free blogs from Blogger (owned by Google; requires Google account)
Tumblr -- http://www.tumblr.com -- free “tumblelogs” which are “short form blogs” -- Tumblr says “if a blog is a journal, then a Tumblelog is a scrapbook”
Google Page Creator -- http://pages.google.com/ -- free web page editor and website creator (owned by Google; requires Google account)
Classroom 2.0 -- http://www.classroom20.com/ -- “the social networking site for those interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in education”
YouTube -- http://www.youtube.com -- a repository for millions of videos available online anywhere anytime on all possible subjects (not all of which are appropriate) but there are a number of treasures here!
TeacherTube -- http://www.teachertube.com -- a site dedicated to sharing instructional video with an online community (content screened for appropriateness and pulled if deemed inappropriate)
SchoolTube -- http://www.schooltube.com/ -- to quote their site: “SchoolTube provides students and educators a safe, world class, and FREE media sharing website that is nationally endorsed by premier education associations.” Content is monitored and approved before posting.
PageFlakes -- http://www.pageflakes.com/ -- a “mash up”….in other words, a site where you can assemble on one web page content and updates from an array of websites covering news, sports, entertainment, technology, etc.
iGoogle -- http://www.google.com/ig -- offers similar “mash up” type format as PageFlakes (owned by Google; requires Google account)
Odeo -- http://odeo.com/ -- an online directory and search destination website for RSS syndicated audio & video which also has tools so that users can create, record, and share podcasts with a simple interface.
Gcast -- http://www.gcast.com/ -- offers free tools to create podcast
iTunes -- http://www.apple.com/itunes/ -- client for accessing multi-media, including subscribing to podcasts
Skype -- http://www.skype.com/ -- a program making it possible to make calls between online computers
Twitter -- http://twitter.com/ -- a service that allows people to communicate and follow other subscribers to Twitter
del.icio.us -- http://del.icio.us/ -- online bookmark/URL storage with options to tag, add descriptions, view other members’ bookmark collections
VoiceThread -- http://voicethread.com/#home -- create a thread from pictures, documents, or videos; comment on thread; share thread online
GarageBand -- http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/ -- part of Apple’s iLife suite, a program that can create soundtracks and record podcasts (and more)
Audacity -- http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ -- free audio editor with quite a few features; available for Windows, Mac, and Linux
Ning -- http://www.ning.com -- a resource to create online social networks focused on particular subjects of interest (see Classroom 2.0 above which is an example of a Ning)
Bubbl.us -- http://bubbl.us -- a free online site offering brainstorming and mind-mapping tools (a possible alternative to Inspiration)
Gliffy -- http://www.gliffy.com -- an online site offering mind-mapping and design (i.e. floor plans) tools -- free and for-pay-subscription options
Diigo -- http://www.diigo.com -- a bookmark organizer and research tool, which also offers social networking with many options for sharing content and collaboration


Other Tools:

RSS/Atom feeds -- can subscribe through browsers, programs such as Outlook 2007, or sites such as Bloglines
Flip Video Camcorders -- http://www.theflip.com/ -- highly portable, easy-to-use hand-held camcorder that stores video on memory card not DV tape
Kindle -- http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons-Wireless-Reading-Device/dp/B000FI73MA -- hand-held eReader from Amazon
iPod -- http://www.apple.com/ipodclassic/ -- highly portable, highly popular personal stereo player -- can also record with microphone accessory such as Griffin iTalk Pro -- http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/italkpro

Web 2.0 Workshop with Tom Daccord -- Day 2

Today began as a continuation of work-time on our blogs.

Next we explored website creation and updating. The tool Tom chose to show us and have us use was Google Page Creator. We got acquainted with the Site Manager and the Page Creator interface. Formatting pages, adding pages, and otherwise assembling a website using Page Creator is quite easy. With tools like Google Page Creator, deciding to do an assignment or project where students would each create their own website could hardly be easier. Obviously, long-gone are the days when, if you wanted to design and get online a website of your own, you’d have to spend major dollars on programs like Dreamweaver. Google Page Creator is free (you do have to create a Google Account but that’s free, too) and design templates make page creation easy. Dreamweaver still does the fancy stuff but it’s quite likely that something like Page Creator will be quite sufficient for student assignments. After all, our focus is going to be on the content more than the design anyway. It was very useful getting a chance to have our own experience using this tool.

It may unnecessary to bring this up again but all the Web 2.0 tools we’ve been using so far are free, their user interface is generally straight-forward, functional, and easy to use. Most offer WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) formatting. and have social networking and collaborative tools built in.

RSS and RSS aggregators were a topic that came up again. Tom featured Bloglines and Google Reader and showed how to add feeds to both. I pointed out to the group that Outlook 2007 has built-in capability to subscribe to RSS feeds. They are accessible in the Outlook Folder List. It’s very handy.

Our next type of tool we looked at is referred to as a mash-up. Tom showed us PageFlakes and how to add news, widgets/gadgets, calendars, and other content to a PageFlake page. All a mash-up is is a web page that displays content chosen by the user. With a mash-up you are able to see, at a glance, news headlines, weather summaries, and an array of up-to-the-minute content in short, headline form. This makes it easy to skip the material of little or no interest and to click on the content where you want to see the full story. Another workshop participant and I pointed out that iGoogle is also a mash-up. Since many of us are using a number of Google tools (Gmail, Blogger, Google Page Creator, Google Docs, etc.), we thought people might consider exploring iGoogle, too, in addition to PageFlakes.

We next took a dip into podcasting. Tom seems to be a strong advocate of podcasting and showed us the ease of creating one – on the fly! – in our workshop. He recorded our responses to a question he posed, passing around his cellphone. He uploaded it to a service called Gcast and, within minutes, we were listening to it as a podcast on Gcast and/or iTunes. That whole process was indeed pretty amazing and Tom made it look super easy. He said that he has used such a cellphone podcast in his history classes for a quick discussion topic or an impromptu quiz.

This was another stimulating and productive day.

Web 2.0 Workshop with Tom Daccord -- Day 1

As people arrived for Day 1, our first task was to find a place to sit in the computer lab. As we got ourselves situated, our presenter, Tom Daccord, came around to introduce himself and handed each of us a complimentary (and signed) copy of his new book, Best Ideas for Teaching with Technology – A Practical Guide for Teachers by Teachers (co-written with Justin Reich; just published this month by M.E. Sharpe).
The formal session began soon thereafter with introductions all around. Participants were mostly teachers and came from places near (Dedham, MA) and far (Toronto, North Carolina, Seattle, and India [!]).
Tom began our three-day workshop on Web 2.0 with a PowerPoint presentation setting forth reasons why the so-called “Web 2.0” tools are so important in our curricula and classrooms. According to Tom, Web 2.0 sites and tools are:
• interactive and intuitive
• facilitate collaboration
• free or low cost
• accessible from anywhere
• varied privacy options
• files hosted on Web
• can embed multimedia

Whereas the first stage of the web’s existence (Web 1.0) was a break-through in so many ways, particularly in its potential to connect people through a vast online network, the content that we accessed was almost always created by someone else. The content could be of great interest and be quite useful, but it was typically “read only.” That is to say, the content we found online was written by someone else (the “expert”). Again, it was a tremendous increase in accessing information for research and study but users did not interact with the “expert” or have a way to add their own perspectives let alone corrections/updates. We users received information but adding our own content was not that easy.
The hallmark of Web 2.0 is that the web has become a two-way street. We users can still access an incredible treasure trove of information but, with Web 2.0, we can also add, correct, and share our own contributions to the wealth of information and knowledge online. With blogs, wikis, and social networking sites easily available, sharing one’s own ideas is easy. Plugging into other people’s thinking and research is also far easier. There has been an explosion of multi-media (video, audio, graphics) readily accessible from any connected computer. The power made possible by collaboration and other forms of social networking across the web – in terms of enhancing teaching and learning – would be difficult to overstate.
As noted above, the low- or no-cost nature of most Web 2.0 tools, the easy-to-use interface of most of these sites and programs, plus the fact that the information is housed online (we don’t have to carry the content around on our computers and we can access it from anywhere) are additional major factors in empowering pretty much everybody in being a presence online, if they so choose. Of course, not every tool is appropriate or useful in our teaching, but there are many Web 2.0 tools that offer much to us as educators.
Some authors/thinkers that Tom recommended today include:
• Ben Schneiderman -- Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies
• Daniel H. Pink -- A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future
• Will Richardson -- Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms
• Andy Carvin -- PBS Learning Now blog and website: http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/
• Kathy Schrock -- her educator’s guide website is now part of the Discovery Education web presence: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/
Tom recommended the Classroom 2.0 website as a prime example of the teaching and learning potential of Web 2.0: http://www.classroom20.com/
Our focus on this, Day 1, was blogs, wikis, and web pages. We began by creating a wiki using Wikispaces, creating and linking new pages, editing, tracking history, etc. Tom had already created a Wikispaces site devoted to this workshop (view here) which he had us use for some of the practice using the discussion tool of a wiki. On our own sites, he showed us how to include multi-media such as audio or video. The power of a wiki is that it offers all users the opportunity to add to the content, including making corrections and updates. So, unlike Web 1.0’s reliance on individual experts to assemble and error-check content (one might say the “Encyclopedia Britannica approach”), wikis offer the collective expertise of all the users coming to the site. Of course, this type of tool also raises the question of learning to double-check sources; just because a website says it’s so doesn’t necessarily make it so, especially in the case of a wiki. However, comparisons of factual mistakes in a non-collaborative source such as online encyclopedias and a collaborative one such as Wikipedia have found little significant difference in the authority and veracity of one over the other (news story here).
Our time doing wiki site creation also included discussion about sources of video with the inevitable misgivings about YouTube and the advocacy of TeacherTube and SchoolTube (the latter a site where students can post work and one I had not heard of before -- content is approved before it is posted).
After a very brief look at Tumblr, which is a sort of short-form blog creation tool, Tom had us use Blogger to create our own blog. Tom went through the steps for setting up a blog, posting to it, setting up the profile and the various formatting settings available. Tom also introduced RSS/Atom feeds. We talked about the kinds of assignments for which a blog might be useful, particularly with the comment feature.
Time flew by pretty fast and it was time for Day 1 to end. We had a good time.


Evening postscript: I'm calling this a good omen! Went to the restaurant adjacent to the hotel this evening. It's an Asian restaurant called Bamboo. Dinner was pretty good but the big payoff after this first day of workshop was the fortune I got in my fortune cookie: "The skills you have gathered will one day come in handy." I do think this first day was great, so it's great to know that it's all going to be worth it!

Technology Workshop -- Web 2.0 -- Tom Daccord -- Boston, MA

Tomorrow is the first day of a three-day workshop I'm attending on what has come to be referred to as "Web 2.0" tools. The presenter is Tom Daccord and the sessions are being held at Noble & Greenough School in Dedham, MA.

The flight to Boston's Logan Airport was pretty smooth, although the weather in Boston itself was a little stormy, so our approach to landing was bumpy.....not scary exactly.....but a little stressful.

Some Preliminary Thinking About Independence

In case you're interested in brushing up on the Fourth of July -- and our nation's celebration of independence -- here's a site from the federal government. Click here to revisit some of our history as we approach the national holiday!

The "Greening" of the Automotive Industry

Popular Mechanics has a collection of articles which they purport to show developments in the automotive world in developing more "green" cars. Let's hope it's working!!! Click here for the article.