Throughout the course of the morning, our small, diverse, and dedicated group explored some of the pedagogical benefits of wikis (cooperative learning, project-based learning, and authentic assessment), explored a variety of wiki examples that spanned all grade levels and disciplines, experimented with several wiki tools, including Wikispaces, Mediawiki, and PBworks, and discussed strategies for effectively assessing student work. Whether you are new to wikis or simply looking to enhance your skills, all session notes and resources are available here; please use and reuse to your benefit.

Each week offers a selection of half, full, and multi-day sessions that will engage participants and provide strategies for effectively utilizing technology in the service of teaching and learning.  Whatever your background, needs, or interests, our Summer Teacher Institute can provide you with the knowledge and skills to transform your classroom into a truly innovative learning environment.

These sessions are open to anyone (although space is limited) and we’re looking forward to an exciting summer of learning.  If you or someone from your school is interested in attending, you contact us for more information.  Online registration will begin early next week; we hope you can join us this summer!

On behalf of the instructional technology coordinators, I would like to thank everyone who participated; your collective knowledge, wisdom, and enthusiasm is simply incredible!  If possible, it would be greatly appreciated if you could leave a comment or send an email regarding your experience this summer; your willingness to engage, reflect and share is what the program is all about.

Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling (workshop wiki available here) utilizes text, images, audio,  and video to create rich personal expressions.  Unlike multimedia “presentations”, a true story considers the author’s point of view, includes a dramatic question and emotional content, is enhanced by voice and often a soundtrack, and is brief but properly paced.  These elements, when combined with media in a structured process, can be transformed into a powerful tale:

For our session, we focused on seven popular tools for creating digital stories.  Each has its strengths and limitations; the key is to match the tool to the task:

• Photo Story 3:  Free Windows program that combines images, narration, and limited text; easy entry point into digital storytelling but can be used K-12.
• Ed.VoiceThread: Web-based, collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos.
• Xtranormal: Convert text-to-speech to create simple 3D movies that can include animations, sound, and expressions.
• Glogster.edu: Upload/combine images, audio, text, and video into an interactive, online poster.
• Animoto for Education: Create short music videos with images, audio and text; unlimited uploads with education account.
• Mixbook: Combine images and text into an e-book that be viewed online or ordered in print form.
• Movie Maker: Free Windows program for simple video editing.

Two keys consideration when using online storytelling tools are student privacy and teacher control.  VoiceThread, Glogster, and Animoto offer education versions that address these issues for little to no cost.

Digital Cartography

Digital cartography (workshop wiki available here) facilitates geography and culture across the curriculum, and any discipline can be approached from a geographic perspective:

• Math concepts and explorations
• Scientific data and discoveries
• Literature tours and trips
• Historical places and maps
• Language and culture
• Art and music

Google Maps and Google Earth are perhaps the two most popular cartographic applications for the classroom.  Google Maps offers custom maps, street view (select cities), photo, video, Wikipedia, and webcam overlays, and the ability to easily create placemarks with text, images, and video.  Google Earth 5.0 brings an added dimension to the world and its new features include historical imagery, oceanic data, and the ability to create narrated tours.

Those wishing to work with data should consider GeoCommons, Gapminder, and/or WorldMapper.  Combining statistical data, geography, and culture can truly enable students to view and understand the world as never before.

The workshop explored the concepts of knowledge, social networks, personal learning networks, media literacy, and the tools and techniques that can support these ideas/skills in the classroom.  From the myriad examples Alec shared and the extended discussions that ensued, perhaps the two points that resonated most deeply with the participants were (1) the relative ease with which anyone (and especially our students) can create, remix, consume, and respond to  media on a global scale, and (2) the  need for educators to develop learning networks  and engage in social media so they can effectively guide their students through the intricacies of living in a networked world.

Attending the workshop was a step down the path for all the teachers who joined Alec yesterday; those wanting to explore network literacy further and experience its power firsthand should consider experimenting with Twitter, Ning,  Diigo (or any of the tools of engagement) and/or watch this segment from Alec’s morning session:

Using his What If video to begin the day and frame the group’s thinking,  Karl asked the teachers to read and comment (via Diigo) on an except from How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School.  Although the content of the article generated thoughtful discussion, the process of collabortively reading/commenting was a new experience for most of the teachers in attendance.  This seemingly simple exercise revealed an important fact; if our thinking regarding education is to shift, our practice must shift as well.

Karl’s updated Did You Know/Shift Happens video, which many in attendance had seen in some form, raised the issue of literacy in a changing world.  Quoting from Jason Ohler, he drove home the point, “Literacy means being able to consumer and produce the media forms of the day.”   In today’s world, where media is hyper-connected and anything/everything can be published, students must learn how to filter (consume) effectively  and create (produce) responsibly.  In addition,with factual information only a click (or text message) away, schools need to reconsider how knowledge is acquired, processed, and demonstrated.  As Karl noted when he introduced  WolframAlpha, “If you are a math teacher and only assigning the odd problems, you are doing your kids a disservice.”

One can only postulate  how schools will change over the next decade, but rigor must be a part of forward-thinking conversations, and Karl presented Tony Wagner’s  Rigor Redefined as one framework for consideration.  The classroom examples Karl shared from his own school provided a glimpse into meaningful learning, and hopefully inspired those in the room (and joining us via UStream) to reconsider their approach to curriculum and instruction.

To close the workshop, Karl posed some “Essential Questions” for further consideration; I hope that you can find time to reflect on them in the coming weeks and months:

• Capture Everything: What’s worth capturing in my classrooms? My building? My district? Audio? Video? Text-based assignments? Student work? Writing?
• Share Everything:  Where can I share it? With whom? What audiences is our organization working to serve? How will they benefit from these shared items? Who needs to see what’s going on?
• Open Everything:  What are the closed silos of information in our schools that shouldn’t be? What things outside of our schools have we closed (blocked)? What can we do to open both of those up?
• Only Connect: How can I help my students and teachers connect with content, with each other, and with others outside the classroom (students, teachers, experts, mentors, the community, etc.) in a meaningful way
• What questions do I have for my administrators/curriculum staff? Teaching Staff? IT Staff? Students?

Once the structure/definition of literacy had been established, the participants worked their way through topics including RSS, social bookmarks, collaborative notebooks, wikis, blogs,  student creation and presentation tools, photo essays, Flickr groups, Google Earth, and more.  From comic books based on The Odyssey to a Google Lit Trip of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, we explored and discussed how English/Language Arts classrooms are fertile ground for engaging students with technology and expanding their understanding of and appreciation for the humanities.

As the day drew to an end one teacher pondered the question, “I wonder what Homer would have done with resources like these?”  We can’t possibly imagine, but we can empower our students to unlock their potential as they learn to read, write, research, and become the next generation of literate citizens.

“This is a very challenging moment for educators. Our children are headed for a much more networked existence, one that allows for learning to occur 24, 7, 365, one that renders physical space much less important for learning, one that will challenge the relevance of classrooms as currently envisioned, and one that challenges our roles as teachers and adult learners.”

Will covered a lot of important ground and each of the teachers in attendance (whether physically in the room or joining us via UStream) undoubtedly took something different away from the experience.  Although it’s not possible to summarize all that was discussed/learned over the span of six hours, a few points in particular resonated with me as an educator.

Technology Lets Us Form Groups

The concept of groups, as it relates to education, typically involves grade levels, athlectic teams, extra-curricular clubs, academic departments, and other assemblages that are connected and constrained by physical means.  Students and teachers don’t create groups, they join groups from an often limited and prescribed list of options.  In an online environment, however, there are no limitations in terms of interests or learning opportunities.  A class of students in a brick-and-mortar settting only have their teacher and each other; consider how the boundaries expand when the knowledge of  a global audience can be leveraged:

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Whether it’s through YouTube, social bookmarking, a Twitter network, or another of the countless tools readily available, we have the power to form groups that can learn and grow together.  And while the possibilities are endless and the entry points enticingly simple, students largely navigate and contribute to these online spaces without adult guidance.  If our students are going to lead transparent lives, we need to teach them differently.

In Media Today, We Are the Editors

Will noted that four years of video is uploaded to YouTube every day and that there are nearly three million articles on Wikipedia.  How does the quantity of information compare to that which existed just a few years ago, and why such an explosive growth?  Anyone can contribute.  What is the quality of all this information?  It depends on us, because in media today, we are the editors.

Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, candidly observed that the problem with information isn’t overload, it’s filter failure.  Clay is  spot on, but we must learn how to not only  filter effectively but to produce and edit effectively.  When we interact with digital content, we do so as “prosumers” that can shape and vet media for the collective “group” that we commonly refer to as the Internet.

Reading and Writing are Social

All of the attendees, regardless of their discipline, were well read and shared a passion for the written word.  As Will demonstrated, however, reading does not have to be a solitary endeavor and the concept of audience can be elevated to a global scale.  Annotating documents using Diigo, contributing to a wiki, or maintaining a blog are but a few example of how reading and writing have become social:

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These three ideas–forming groups, acting as editors, reading and writing socially–are powerful, interconnected, and represent only a small portion of today’s conversation.  If you were fortunate enough to attend in person or online, feel free to participate in this networked, digital world and share your thoughts; who knows where they might lead you.

Using the framework of the TPCK Model (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge), we explored how the aforementioned “traditional” language skills could be merged with Basic Literacy, Information Literacy, Visual/Media Literacy, Intercultural Literacy, Network Literacy, and Citizenship and Ethical Literacy to create a truly modern language classroom:

As we stressed in the session, each tool/strategy presented has a different learning curve and serves a unique purpose; consider the needs of your program, begin with something manageable yet meaningful, and recognize that the shift from traditional to more contemporary curriculum and instruction takes time but the results are well worth the effort.   Empowering students and teachers to utilize varied approaches leads to a deeper understanding of language and culture, and that universally translates to improved learning.