Cell Phone

Cell Phone, a photo by daryl_mitchell on Flickr.

Thanks for the photo

  by  fras1977 

Because copying and pasting images is so easy now, we often neglect to give credit to the creators of the images we use.  As teachers we need to be model good attribution behavior for out students.

Finding and attributing photos from Flickr is easy to do with a tool called Imagecodr. On the home page of this site, you can click the Search tab to find photos.  To provide attribution in your blog or website, you click the Get Code! tab and enter the URL of the photo you wish to use.  Use the code displayed to put the image and the complete attribution information on your blog.or website.

I was looking for an image of threads to use when discussing Voice Threads.  The image above with the CC licsnse and link is the result using the code from Imagcodr.

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear

I attended the rally Oct. 30 at the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The rally officially started at noon, but when a friend and I arrived at 9:00 in the morning to find a spot, the mall was already filling  up. The rally  was a great experience. It was a mixture of good music, good fun, good sane people and a serious message.

Jon Stewart ended the rally with the message that despite what we often hear on tv or in the news about how divided we are as a nation, as individuals we actually do all work together everyday to get things done .  His complete closing remarks are in the video below.

Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear
Jon Stewart - Moment of Sincerity
www.comedycentral.com
Rally to Restore Sainty and/or Fear The Daily Show The Colbert Report

The signs people carried were creative and very humorous. Here are a few:

I'm as moderate as hell.
Politics has been too concerned with right or left instead or right or wrong.
Be quick to listen and slow to anger.
I'm using my inside voice.
My comedy channel Fox News.  My news channel Comedy Central.
Somewhat irritated about extreme outrage.
Separation of corporation and state.
Civil is sexy.
U.S. Department of Peace
It's a sad day when our politicians are comical and I have to take our comedians seriously!


Below is a video about the rally that was posted on Al Jazeera.

Jumping into Personal Learning Environments, Networks and Knowledge 2010

By tsakshaug

Although I had signed up for a free, online course called Personal Learning Environments, Networks and Knowledge 2010 (PLENK 2010) facilitated by George Siemens, Stephen Downes,  and Dave Cormier, I hadn't had a chance to jump in until today.
On reading about various features of a Personal Learning Environment  (PLE) in an EDUCAUSE  brief, I found these two quotes particularly salient. A PLE ... puts students in charge of their own learning processes, challenging them to reflect on the tools and resources that help them learn best. This way of looking at learning changes the role of the teacher who then becomes a real facilitator instead of a provider of information to be learned.  As expressed in the article, ... [T]eaching is less a matter of data transmission and more a collaborative exercise in collection, orchestration, remixing, and integration of data into knowledge building. I have seen in the university courses that I teach, that graduate students can take charge of their own learning when given the opportunity.  I also assume (but haven't researched) that the idea of self-directed learning is the basis for Montessori schools.  What I am wondering is if this same process works in middle and high school.  Is it possible?  Is it being done?  Who's doing it?

In Learning networks in practice, Stephen Downes explains how the PLE allows the
learner not only to consume learning resources, but to produce them as well. Learning therefore evolves from being a transfer of content and knowledge to the production of content and knowledge. Now as far as producing is concerned, students have always produced things ranging from illustrating a story  in elementary school to writing a thesis in high school.  How does the use of a PLE change that?  The answer is in the formation of learning networks which become the basis for continuing the learning after producing something.  The feedback from others can lead to refinement of both products and ideas.

Learning, in other words, occurs in communities, where the practice of learning is the participation in
the community. A learning activity is, in essence, a conversation undertaken between the learner and other members of the community. This conversation, in the Web 2.0 era, consists not only of words but of images, video, multimedia and more.


According to Downes these communities should display four essential characteristics:
1.  Diversity - This means being exposed to a wide spectrum of experiences.  Diversity allows us to have multiple perspectives, to see things from a different point of view. These views moderate each other, and prevent us from jumping to a conclusion.
2.  Autonomy - This means that each learner operates according to an individual and internal set of
principles and values.
3.  Connectedness -The knowledge produced by a network should be the product of an interaction between the members, not a mere aggregation of the members’ perspectives.
4.  Openness - Each participant in a network must be able to contribute to the network, and each ...needs to be able to receive from the network.

Mark all as Read!

By barockschloss

On her blog, Librarian by Day, Bobbi L. Newman gives some very practical advice regarding how to keep your Google Reader RSS  feeds manageable.  She gives some practical tips in her post Be the Master of Your Domain, How to Conquer Your Feed Reader .

One thing she suggests is exactly what I have been doing lately and that is - when my Google reader gets too full and I'm feeling guilty about not reading all the posts, I hit "Mark all as read."  What feeling of relief!


But Bobbi also offers some tips on weeding your Google Reader.  For example, she suggests:
1.  Ask yourself if you are getting the information somewhere else, like Twitter or Facebook.  Do you prefer that method? Unsubscribe.  
2.   Look at what you are reading. Under “All Stuff” is a “Trends” link. When you look at your own trends:

• First weed anything under Inactive.
• Then take a look at Frequently Updated.  Maybe if it (the blog)updates too frequently you should consider unsubscribing.  

Bobbi says she has unsubscribed from some really popular tech sites  because the authors just post too much information.  I've done the same, although it's always with a pang of remorse at losing a good connection.

Today I'm suffering from information overload again, so I'm going to follow Bobbi's advice.  I "pruned"  earlier this week, so I think it's time for "Mark all as read" until I can do some serious weeding!

Literacy in the 21st Century

I recently read Is Google Making Us Stupid? an article that appeared in the Atlantic magazine.  Despite the harsh-sounding title, it is a thought-provoking article  touching on issues which have yet to be sufficiently researched.  Soon after that I watched an IDEO video called The Future of the Book which shows the power of new tools that will change literacy as we now think of it.

Flickr photo by cindiann

For fun, be sure to watch the hilarious Youtube video clip Introducing the Book.

Networking and Composting

From The Green Dollar

After spending a week with my sister who is actively engaged in composting, I started a compost pile of my own and started thinking about how a personal learning network and a compost pile had a lot in common.

Of course, the most obvious similarity is that they can both be messy and need to be turned over or revised from time to time.  But, in addition, think about these attributes of a compost pile and see if you can find the similarities to a PLN.

• Good material goes into the mix.
• The right balance of ingredients is crucial for a good result.
• The ingredients get mixed together and interact with each other.
• The mixture produces a compound that will nurture new growth.

New to networking or creating a personal learning network(PLNs) for yourself or your students?
Here's what Will Richardson has to say about student PLNs.

You can find more information on PLNs in my Delicious account.