We can work IT out

I’ve never written down goals before (well, not these type) and I’m a little reluctant to start now. What if I don’t make any of them? What if they are in conflict with the goals of my workplace? What if they make me look like a luddite, or if they are just plain ordinary?

However, I want to have a set a goals so that I can keep track of where I want to go, where I want to direct the teachers I work with, so that I can say at the end, these are the things that I achieved or have tried to achieve. What do I need to do next to get there? What has happened throughout the year that will make me edit or re-think my goals for the following year? Deep breath . . . I will:

1. encourage the staff in my workplace to use Yammer as an alternate form of cumminication and to see that it has many (and different) benefits over email;
2. run a Web2.0 course for the School administrators and have them use a blog and other web tools on a regular basis;
3. run a Blog Course for interested teachers – along the lines of 30 days to be a better blogger (which I really want to do myself) Coincidentally, Sue Waters has just blogged about a new 30 Days Project starting up;
4. encourage the teachers (that I worked with during 2008) to use a variety of web tools in 2009 eg VoiceThread, Blogging;
5. blog regularly and keep commenting on blogs that I read
6. create a portal for my maths class so that there is an online presence and support for learning
7. be a better father;

I’m sure there are more goals, and I hope to add some over the next few weeks.

Photo: source Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial 2.0 Generic license

What Web2.0 tool should I use?

What Web2.0 tool would you use?

This year for my Year 7 maths class I want to have a learning management system – but without using commercial software ie no Moodle (takes too long to learn); no Sharepoint (need access to set up on servers) and no Blackboard (cost too much).

This is what I want to do with it:

• set tasks and have students reply that they have completed them
• put course materials online
• have students ask questions online
• have video lessons that I make available for each teaching moment
• have parents see progress of their child and make comments
• be accessible from home
• have some assessment data viewable
• have students use it to profile some of their work
• and a few other things that I have probably forgotten to mention
• have it semi-private so that students and their parents are the main (only) users

These are some the options:

• Edmodo – can I do most of this in edumodo??
• A blog
• A Wiki
• A ning
• other suggestions?

So, what would you use? Which tool will make it fairly simple, keep it organised and not be too hard for parents to interact with?

Photo: source Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 2.0 Generic license

Side-note: Wasn’t sure what to expect when I typed “help” into the Flickr Creative Commons search engine but there were an interesting range of images.

This could be an interesting task for students to do: with a digital camera take an image that depicts ‘help’, add it to VoiceThread (or blog page), describe your thoughts and invite others to respond.

During term 4 of 2008 I was supporting 3 Year 7 classes and taking them through a Web2 journey. One of the tasks was to use Voicethread as a tool for responding to a book that the class had read. Other than some microphone settings hitches (we have them all the time on our pcs – never on the macs), it all went well and there were some good products.

More important for me, were the teachers’ responses. I sort of got the impression that they saw it as a ‘good’ task, but I’m not sure that they were bowled over by the possibilities. Eg, how else could VoiceThread be used? Where in my curriculum could this come in handy? How could I use it to make my students passionate about something?

This morning, I found a voicethread that looks at the issue of Darfur. The discussion going one here is great. The students aren’t afraid to voice their opinions nor to disagree with their peers.

What do I have to do to get teachers to think about the possibilities and to have a go?

Photo: source Attribution Noncommercial Share Alike 2.0 Generic license