Study Group Final Report

Below is a list of work created by members of the Will Richardson Study Group at the Newark Valley School District in New York, which read and experimented with educational technologies such as blogs, wikis, podcasts and more. This study group was funded through a grant from the Tioga County Teacher Center.

Blogging
Check out this screencast produced by Ed and Lorrie that captures blogging basics. The screencast was produced using PowerPoint, Audacity and Windows Movie Maker, all of which are free at NVCS.
http://www.nvcs.stier.org/bookclub/New%20Folder/BookReview.html

I created two blogspots on Blogger.com, one for my 6th social studies class and one for my 6th grade math class. I have used both sites with great success. As a group, the students and I are well on our way to blogging and offering commentary on the work of others. I use both sites to post either a class assignment, an open-ended question, or work models. Both sites also include a thorough listing of applicable links for further learning -- Bev
http://coolhistory-meagher.blogspot.com
http://riddlermath.blogspot.com

I used eblogger to open a discussion of The Scarlet Letter -- Stacy
http://smallery-scarletletter.blogspot.com/

My writing lab students set up blogs through blogger.com. They use these blogs for publishing finished and semi-finished work, and so that their teacher can comment on their work between lab periods. These blogs also serve as publishing spaces or portfolios. Here are just a few examples -- Scott
http://mattgoarmyrangers.blogspot.com/
http://blog-r-done.blogspot.com/
http://writinglabawesomeness.blogspot.com/

Lori made her first blog for the computer lab, which can function as both a way to interact with students and adults, and also as a serious source of information.
http://www.lablingo.blogspot.com/

Lorrie used a blog to interact with her English class, often bringing in special guests from around the school to participate in classroom discussions
http://moose8period.blogspot.com/

Wikis
Check out this screencast produced by Bonnie and Jill that captures wiki basics. The screencast was produced using PowerPoint, Audacity and Windows Movie Maker, all of which are free at NVCS.
movie_coming_soon.com

Here's the wiki link that Jill and I used for our English 8R class -- http://english8r.wikispaces.com/

For the first assignment, students had to go to CNN and select a current news story and create a summary to post on the discussion site. Then they visited other sites and posted comments. Then they responded to the comments. We were able to have a "class discussion" even when we were not in class. Students posted comments from study halls and home. By the end of the lesson, there were over 200 postings among 10 students.

For the second assignment students selected excerpts from the book we read in class, Zlata's Diary. Then they combined the author's short, choppy sentences for a lesson in sentence combining -- Bonnie and Jill

I used wikispaces as a discussion forum for my Honors English class, extending the class discussion and utilizing it to discuss independent reading assignments. Publishing student work, forcing them to be more critical of their writing, allows them to have an authentic audience -- Stacy
https://englishclass.wikispaces.com/

My writing lab classes also used wikispaces as electronic portfolios, eliminating the need to have paper folders while allowing students to publish their work. This provides for a pride of authorship that has improved students' writing -- Stacy
http://amandawoods.wikispaces.com/
http://lewd.wikispaces.com/
http://ltruesdail13.wikispaces.com/

I used pbwiki.com for a collaborative essay project in which students divided up the work of an essay and combined their knowledge of content and writing to put together a group-written essay. They used comment functions to leave messages for group members, edited each other's work and even had the opportunity to reflect on what they learned about writing from their group members. Here are a few examples -- Scott
http://edgarallanpoe.pbwiki.com/
http://poedeath.pbwiki.com/
http://masqueessay9.pbwiki.com
http://edgarallan9.pbwiki.com

As an entire group, we collaborated in the improvement of the Town of Newark Valley entry at wikipedia.com, much of which was revised by someone else since our edits were posted back in January/February
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newark_Valley_(town),_New_York

RSS Feeds
Check out Stacy and Lori's RSS Feeds screencast which was produced using PowerPoint, Audacity and Windows Movie Maker, all of which are free applications to teachers at NVCS.
http://www.nvcs.stier.org/bookclub/New%20Folder/BookReview.html

Flickr.com
Check out this Flickr.com screencast produced by Bev that captures Flickr basics. The screencast was produced using PowerPoint, Audacity and Windows Movie Maker, all of which are free at NVCS.
http://www.nvcs.stier.org/bookclub/New%20Folder/BookReview.html

The following message is from Bev, who has used the Flickr.com site to support what she does in the classroom. She says, "Through the uploading of images, I was able to post them to both blogspots, annotate the pictures using historical information, and allow students to provide comment. Also, I use the photos found in the public files on Flickr to show with my daily postings."
http://coolhistory-meagher.blogspot.com
http://riddlermath.blogspot.com/

Podcasting
Check out this screencast about podcasting produced by Scott and Kathleen that captures podcasting and screencasting basics. The screencast was produced using PowerPoint, Audacity and Windows Movie Maker, all of which are free at NVCS.
http://www.nvcs.stier.org/bookclub/New%20Folder/BookReview.html

What It All Means
Take a look at Brittany's movie, which breaks down the various ways education is changing because of the shifting control over content.
http://www.nvcs.stier.org/bookclub/New%20Folder/BookReview.html

Wiki Collaborative Essay A Hit

Just wanted to share some of reflective comments from my freshmen following our first wiki collaborative essay. Out of the 24 in the class, 23 praised the project and said it was a great learning experience. I've posted several of the comments under "comments" on this post. Check out what some of them said:

Also, here are the links and passwords to a few of the wiki essays. Feel free to login and look around at how I set it up:

http://edgarallanpoe.pbwiki.com/
edgarallan

http://poedeath.pbwiki.com/
deathpoe

The Downside of RSS Feeds

I certainly see the benefit of RSS feeds. If you are constantly scanning numerous newspapers, magazines, websites, etc. for information that pertains to your particular interest or field of endeavor, the RSS option can be a very welcome timesaver. What bothers me about this mindset is that a person can become too specialized in their information sources. It potentially excludes a person from finding some new tangent of information that could lead to another intellectual pursuit or revelation. I love reading the Press & Sun-Bulletin and the Ithaca Journal page by page because I feel like I’m going exploring. Some of the more fascinating articles can be buried in the middle of the paper somewhere. I feel that signing up for an RSS feed is an assault on my natural curiosity.

A Stand Against Wikipedia

The history department at Middlebury College has specifically banned the use of Wikipedia for research papers. Here is the link to the full article:
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2007/01/26/wiki

Ed

Bloggers and Nancy Pelosi

There was an article in today’s Press and Sun-Bulletin concerning Nancy Pelosi fielding questions from Internet bloggers after being sworn in as House Speaker. She has full-time staff person engaged in blogger outreach.

“It’s a power base and its influential and its an opportunity. And you what? It exists,” said John Avorosis, who runs Americablog.com. “It should only scare you if you on their bad side.”

I couldn’t find an online version of the article.

It's Time to Fight Back Against 'infomania'

This was a recent article from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Many people have come to the conclusion that the constant barrage of emails, text messaging, cell phone distraction, etc. is cutting into productivity in the workplace.Here is the link to the article:http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/300740_msftinfomania23x.html

Next Meeting

I really enjoyed our meeting last Wednesday and look forward to exploring wikis in preparation for our next get-together. Please select from these two dates for our next meeting and get back to me by Wednesday of next week. Majority vote wins out.

1. Wednesday, January 31
2. Wednesday, February 7

For those of you who like group work and collaborative projects, Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia that provides “free access to the sum of all human knowledge,” might be very intriguing as a classroom tool. With that in mind, here are your homework assignments, all designed to get you confortable enough with wikis so that they might become part of your curriculum:

1. Read chapter 4 – Wikis: Easy Collaboration for All

2. Visit some of the Examples of Wikis in K-12 Classrooms on pages 67-70

3. Write a comment or two on this post, detailing your thoughts on the place of wikis in education (as both a tool for output and input). What are the potentials? What are the risks?

4. Visit Wikipedia.org and search for Newark Valley. Browse the entry and make a list of all categories that could be added to that Wikipedia entry. Post your list as a comment on this post.

5. We’ll be expanding on this Newark Valley entry during our next meeting, so bring any materials you have on the history of the village, or any current documents that might help build a more expansive and up-to-date entry.