I’m joining the 31-day Comment Challenge, which I first read about this morning in my friend Kevin’s blog. In a way, I think Challenge organizers Kim Coffino, Sue Waters, Silvia Tolisano, and Michele Martin have added structure to a direction I’ve been moving in the last year or so - moving away from reading “first wave” bloggers, who are typically convention keynote speakers, published authors, etc., and, instead, reading blogs of fellow teachers, from near and far, who work directly with students. Twitter, I think, somehow has much to do with my switch in blog reading habits. It’s so easy and fast to read 140 character microblogs, and from a Tweet, I’ll often click on the Tweeter’s link and journey over to their blog. What I like about the 2nd wave of bloggers is that, unlike the 1st wave, conversations are more likely to happen, as opposed to a zillion people posting comment after comment. I feel a sense of community. With this idea of community in mind, I look forward to joining the challenge to becoming a better blog citizen.

Heading off to read Gina’s Guide to Weblog Comments and to figure out the best way to jump start the challenge (since I’m beginning in Day 4;-)

Four days ago, I clicked on a link in an email from Steve Hargadon, via Classroom 2.0, with an invitation to celebrate blogging’s 10th birthday by posting a Voice Thread.

“Some of us believe that blogging, as one of the great entry points into ‘read/write’ web (or “Web 2.0″), is having a transformative impact on education and learning, and that we are at the start of a new renaissance that will be defined by the participatory, contributive, and collaborative nature of the Web.”

At that time, Steve and three others had posted. Since it was already late, I jumped in the next morning (I think I might have been the 6th person to add a comment). Just checked back…to find 28 people have added their thoughts. I am still in awe of the participatory possibilities of Web 2.0!

I saw the “transformative” impact of blogging on teaching and learning five years ago, when I delved into my first student blog project and discovered that a group of disengaged high school students (already “dismissed” from the traditional high school and attending a continuation school) were reading a posting after school hours - when they did not have to. The new tools, such as Voice Thread, Slideshare, and podcasting, continue to make a good tool even better.

Happy Birthday, Blogs!

For some reason, I feel the need to end this post with a slightly different Happy Birthday wish (?) for Web 2.0 - from THE Journal’s Steve Weinbstock - http://thejournal.com/articles/21374.

Technorati Tags: blogs blogging 10th-Birthday Web2 transformative_learning

Thanks to Kevin H’s post, I found Mike Temple’s very useful site on Edublog Tutorials. He has great beginning how-to video tutorials, but also advanced (for me) user tips on customizing your sidebar and adding all kinds of snazzy widgets. As an added bonus, you can follow along his discussion with my Sacto neighbor Alice Mercer, plus a link to her online tutorial. I’ll throw into the mix the handout I’ve put together for teacher workshops - with a commitment to keep it updated

Many thanks to James Farmer for his huge part in bringing teachers on board with Web 2.0. And, oh my, I just checked out the wonderful tutorials he has added - starting with a slide show on Why Blog? and moving on to Mike Temple’s start up videos - and links to Alice’s classroom blog .

Technorati Tags: Edublogs, James_Farmer,

Alice Mercer, 5th grade teacher at Nicholas Elementary School in the Sacramento City Unified School District is experimenting with a number of Web 2.0 tools to support and engage her students in learning. Through a visit to her Ms. Mercer’s Class Website, I discovered very cool FREE - and “not-yet-blocked” tool that Alice is using to host her online Homework Club - http://vyew.com/room/170301.

“Vyew (pronounced “view”) is an Anytime Collaboration and Live Conferencing™ platform that provides a virtual space for Web users to create, collaborate and communicate with each other. Vyew includes a rich set of tools that enable collaborators to work together on documents, images, screen captures, desktop shares, whiteboard annotations, and more. ”

I met Alice in last week’s EdTechTalk. Very exciting to discover a teacher doing good things for kids right one district over!
Technorati Tags: Web2.0, blogging, vyew, SCUSD, EdTechTalk

Kevin Hodgson’s Electric Pen classroom weblog site provides teachers with a window into Web 2.0 possibilities at the elementary level. It is also Tech Learning’s site of the week. What a well-deserved recognition! Kevin is my friend, mentor, and also a fellow NWP Tech Liaison. I’ve had the good fortune to join him in the Youth Radio project, a project he developed to connect students across the nation, and now across the world, in blogging and podcasting about thoughts, stories, and issues in their own communities.

Kevin mentors and inspires teachers as well as students. His SciFi novel in Six Words wiki, for example, was my first experience with collaborative writing in a wiki. Whatever learning adventure he is sponsoring, I know it will be worth the learning curve - which he manages to keep to a comfortable minimum.

Kevin’s projects serve as examples on the “New Bloom,” an updated version of Bloom’s Taxonomy, which points towards technology-enhanced activities as the means for taking students beyond “Remember” (the old “Knowledge).

Yeah Kevin!
Technorati Tags: Bloom, digital_writing, Web2.0, NWP

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).

I’ve followed a few of Will Richardson’s Weblogg-ed posts regarding his switch from Manila blogs to WP. I am making the same switch via edublogs. Many thanks to James Farmer for offering a free site for educators. My only suggestion would be to offer a theme or two geared to elementary classrooms. The WP interface is user-friendly enough to bring teachers on board with blogging within a two-hour workshop. Jumping in to edit a theme’s CSS, however, is definitely for the advanced user.

Bud the Teacher has posted a great idea for blogging workshop opening activity. He posted the activity as an untested idea, so I’ll be checking back on his site to see if the activity actually proved an effective way to make visible the interactivity of the read/write web.

A quote from Classroom Blogging: “It’s simple! Literacy is about communicating. It is about reading and writing. Blogging is about communicating. It is about reading and writing.

• Literacy = Communication (reading + writing)
• Blogging = Communication (reading + writing)
• Blogging = Lieteracy

I’ve just ordered Will Richardson’s book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts. In the meantime I’m catching up with Will via his recent podcast with Alan November. Good stuff!