During a recent workshop on Internet safety, I attempted to provide teachers with classroom-related examples of Web 2.0 use. It might have been more information than they needed since they arrived expecting to hear about iSafety, not student projects. As I rethink the workshop agenda, I’m collecting sample videos to provide quick – and maybe inspiring – glimpses into the Read/Write web. Here’s what I have so far:

1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE (Thanks to NWP TL Tanya Witherspoon.
2. http://learningismessy.com/blog/?p=196 (From Brian Crosby)
3. http://www.infinitethinking.org/2006/12/itm-4-welcome-to-blogosphere.html  (Chris Walsh).

Part of my morning routine generally includes reading David Warlick’s 2 cents blog. He was in San Francisco this week to present at the 25th Technology, Reading Learning Diversity Conference. That’s a new one for me. Had I known about it, I would have made the 2.5 hour trip from the foothills to “the City” to sit in on his session. And now I am really regretting having missed the TRLD conference because in his post this morning, he praises Sacramento COE’s John Fleischman:

” I had nothing else to do until 5:30, so I attended sessions, and was surprised at how many Web 2.0 presentations are being done — considering that this is not entirely a technology conference. John Fleischman, of the Sacramento County Office of Education, presented a session called Digital Native Tools: What Every Educator Should Know. It’s a great title for a great presentation. I was especially impressed with the clarity of his work. He very masterfully presented the components of Web 2.0, without getting bogged down in the muck that is the philosophy of the new web. It’s my problem in presenting this stuff, that I seem compelled to try to convey not only the tools but the spirit of the new web — and that’s really hard. Often, it’s just too much information.”

John Fleischman has worked tirelessly to improve connectivity to Sacramento schools and to promote the meaningful kind technology integration made possible by a reliable infrastructure. Many of us who work in his CTAP 3 region know the difference he is making for teaching and learning in our schools, but is not one to toot his own horn – he’s too busy promoting the work of others. I am very pleased to see his name out there in the blogosphere.

Technorati Tags: SCOE, Web2.0

California school districts needing to write or update their Tech Plans will have a new requirement:

include a component to educate pupils and teachers on
          ethical behavior in the use of information technology, the
          concept, purpose and significance of a copyright, and the
          implications of illegal peer-to-peer network file sharing.

AB 307 has also been amended to include Internet safety.    I think it’s very possible that this requirement will encourage teachers to include Web 2.0 tools in their curriculum. Seems logical to explore lessons on how students may use Web 2.0 tools safely and ethically in addition to the cautions and legal aspects, no?

I thank Wes Fryer for adding another layer to the rationale for including blogging as part our classroom curriculum. If our students can show parents how their involvement in purposeful, monitored classroom blogging is engaging them – safely – in the learning process, parent perceptions about Web 2.0 will change.

“When a teacher establishes a safe, moderated classroom blogging environment using a tool like Class Blogmeister, s/he is not merely advancing the literacy development of students. The act of helping students safely blog over time in a moderated, public space tangibly advances a school reform agenda which includes changing adult perceptions of learning, especially as learning relates to and involves technology. “

Wes Fryer’s post follows last night’s outstanding Teachers Teaching Teachers session. Paul Allison emailed to a growing audience an invitation to join this weekly (usually) Skypecast for educators. His invitation included a link to Clarence Fisher’s post about dividing courses into components. Paul’s question to the TTT audience was “Do we need a separate class for blogging or is blogging an example of something that could be divided into components and re-assembled by a team of teachers at different times?

From Paul:

“Wouldn’t it be smart for a school to take the set of skills and habits of work that blogging requires/inspires and teach these alongside other curricula, instead of teaching them in isolation like many of us do now in New Media/New Journalism/Computer Technology elective courses? What if the teachers and administrators in a school were to treat blogging as a basic skill that needed to be taught in every grade, every semester. Can we imagine a scope and sequence for blogging that would stretch across the grade levels? This is exactly what some of us are beginning to be able to envision.

We are growing in our confidence to describe exactly what it means to teach blogging — and how it is different from what is taught now in even the best writing, media, and research classes. Those of us who have been teaching blogging as a course are beginning to be specific about what needs to be in a blogging curriculum. At the same time, many of us are not ready to go to the whole school and recommend this curriculum. We realize how much time, effort and thought must be devoted to blogging to see it become a truly meaningful and student-owned activity in school.

Perhaps it sounds contradictory, but it’s the vision of blogging going across the curriculum and into every grade that motivates some of us to be developing this curriculum in our own courses. We can imagine blogging being integrated into every teacher’s classroom, the way independent reading or vocabulary study is shared by teachers in many secondary schools. But we need a bit more time to develop the questions and exact components that seem important to blogging. “

I’ll end this post with one more argument for teaching blogging in the classroom: Pete O’Reilly’s post on child abuse and online predators.