Advancing Technology 2008

May's Prompt: Final MTP Report

2009-05-03T18:16:00.000-07:00

Now that you have reached the end of your official Modest Tech Project cycle, please post a final version. Take this opportunity to attach or upload the documents you've used, student work produced in conjunction with the project, the lesson plan associated with it, readings/resources you'd recommend to others about it, and/or a reflection on the experience.

Please also send me a quick email once your ATI blog is complete. Once you've completed this last step, you can look forward to your final stipend installment (if it's completed by July 1, 2009, that is--sorry). If you've done your workshop but have not yet been paid for it, please let me know that, too. I want to make sure you get all the money you're due.

It's been a pleasure and an honor, ladies. I am grateful for this year with you. Tracy

Monthly MTP Progress Report Prompt

2008-10-03T19:33:00.000-07:00

Perpetual Option One:
During the first full week of every month, please take a moment to reflect on your MTP progress this month by answering some of the following questions:

What has happened?
What has worked?
What hasn't worked?
What do you have now that you didn't have last month?
Have your timeline predictions been accurate?
Are you meeting your goals?
Do you need to vent? gloat?
How can others assist/support you?

Once you've posted your check-in to your blog, please go see what your ATIHomeys have posted to theirs. And remember: the sooner you post, the more responses you'll likely get.

Option Two for April:
Please post a draft agenda for a workshop you could present on your MTP--or, indeed, on any other tech application with which you have experience. What would you cover? Why? In what order? How much time should you devote to each item on your agenda? What resources/references would you provide? What kind of workshop might you offer?

Option Two for February:
Please find an article that addresses either technology in general or your MTP topic in specific, and talk about how you might use that article in a workshop about your MTP.

Option Two for January:
Please write a letter of welcome/introduction/preparation for ATI2009 participants. How might you help them make the most of the experience? About what do they need to be warned? For what surprises should/could you prepare them? If you had the whole thing to do over again, what would you do differently, and why? Alternately, you could write your letter to your RWP Tech Team--especially now as they/we are planning for ATI2009--letting them/us know what to keep, what to fix, what to dump entirely. We appreciate your contributions.

Option Two for December:
If you were suddenly granted an entire week of virtual vacation--freed from workplace and household chores, granted an unlimited budget, and positioned to approach the week fresh and rested and already non-virtually vacationed--where would you "go"? What would you explore? research? study? read? test drive? buy? Why?

Option Two for November:
Add some new sites/resources to your del.icio.us page. (For a reminder about how to use del.icio.us, view the video.) Either before or after you do, peruse your colleagues' sites, and suggest an addition to their collections.

Consolidating GoogleStuff Access from Sarah Holmes

2008-08-13T10:27:00.000-07:00

I have to share with you that I finally figured out how to get around the glitches of having the two email addresses, one (my school address) for my Blogger acct. and the other (my Gmail address) for my Gmail and GoogleDocs. And I must say, now that I figured it out, I feel so silly for not having thought of it before! From my school address' Blogger acct. I simply invited myself at my Gmail address as a collaborator to my blog, granted myself administrative permissions for all my blogs, and all my problems are solved! It's so funny how I was trying so hard to figure a way to make everything (GoogleDocs, Gmail, etc.) switch over to be the same as my Blogger acct., when all I had to do was let my Gmail acct. have access to the blog! Aaah-Ha!

Tips, Tricks, and Insider Cool

2008-08-13T10:25:00.000-07:00

Consolidating GoogleStuff Access from Sarah Holmes

How to Get Coaching and Schedule a Workshop

2008-08-08T13:13:00.000-07:00

Audience is not just who; it's also when and where.

How to Get Coaching and Schedule a Workshop

How do we identify an audience for our workshops?

Find folks already ready for / interested in your topic
Find out level of tech savvy and tech readiness
Consider how much time the workshop gets
Find the hook: how audience members need and can use and will have fun with your topic
Survey participants ahead of time (SurveyMonkey.com = free)

How do we want to schedule / arrange / allow time for pre-workshop coaching sessions?

Workshopper does an eMail Shout Out via GoogleGroups: identify topic and venue and time required and, maybe, level of readiness
Meet-O-Matic (free!)

What questions should coaches ask of presenters?

Is there anything you particularly want me to address?
What do you think is good about your workshop? What do you think needs improvement / may not work / or is AFU?
What is the purpose of the workshop? The goal, the point?
Who is your audience? WHY?
What is the goal / value / applicability of the technology?
How much time do you have?
Is this a show-and-tell or a hands-on workshop?
How much do you expect your audience to know already?
Do you want the audience to have prepared anything in advance?
What technology do you need? Do you have or need a Marsha or a Grace?
What kind of handouts do you need to prepare? How much do you need to have posted ahead of time? Business cards? Post cards?
How will you evaluate your workshop and/or yourself?
Would you like to debrief after the workshop? On what do you think you'll focus during your debriefing? Should the debriefing happen online or in person?

What questions should presenters ask of their coaches? (Turn into statements that form a checklist.)

Can you tell what the purpose is?
How's my timing/pacing?
How's the variety of activities?
Are my handouts clear?
Are my explanations on my handouts clear?
Is my agenda good?
How am I acknowledging the expertise of the participants?
Am I addressing adult learners?
How are participants really participating?
Can you suggest other resources?
Is there too much or is this a manageable chunk?
Do you think I'm integrating technology well?
Is it purposeful?
Is the show-and-tell portion(s) balanced well with the hands-on portion(s)?
How can I communicate my expertise without bragging?
Have I provided sufficient resources for my audience to continue past the workshop itself?
How can I provide further support for my participants? Series? Support groups? Online resources? Now, how can I get compensated ($$$$$) for this after-workshop work?

How can we publicize our workshops?

Word of mouth
Listservs
Venue's publicity
HCOE catalog
RWP Website
NCJ (free) online calendar
Press releases (stuff from RWP)
"Publicizing Your Workshop" checklist from RWP (on the website, too)
Letters to administrators
Flyers to school sites--beware the blind blanket
Disseminating flyers via TCs and key contacts and other advocates
Postcards (mailers)
Target audiences!
Consider credential applicants, pre-service teachers

Workshop Information:

Presenters get $100 for the first workshop--no matter what (I think)
Once we have sufficient paying customers, presenters get $100/hour. This'll help us decide what the break-even point is: the point at which we determine whether we have enough paying customers to do the workshop. After the break-even point, the remaining income is split between presenter (70%) and RWP (30%). SO, If I want $1500 for a 15-hour workshop, I need a minimum of 10 people at $250 each (and RWP gets $750).

Possible Workshop Venues

Fall Tech Series: Sept, Oct, Nov, Dec; 2-3 hour sessions
Spring Conference: March 28, 1.25-2.5 hour sessions,
ISI Visitor's Day: Invitational Summer Institute
HSU Comp Program Meeting: September 12 and October 31 plus other, TBA dates, too
School Inservice--and Go East, Young Women!
FESCUE: October 25
Other Writing Project sites
CATE (Anne Sahlberg)
NWP
IRA
CRA
NCTE (all show and tell)
EdTech institutions

Workshop Alternatives (This is different from ATIHomey Support)

Tech mentoring (which can include on-site tech support)--Lauralee is available and eager
Designing an online course
Create a how-to website
Create a techEd repository for RWP
In addition to something else, serving as IT person for conferences
Creating a web video: TeacherTube how-tos and whatnot
EduSpaces.net something

2008-08-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

Using Your ATI2008 Blog to Prep a Workshop

Monthly checks ins ==> Safety Net

Email reminders
One week to post a progress report to own blog
Following week--or same week?--to read and respond to each others' progress reports

Timeline!
Resources
Reflections
Chart evolution of thought process
Comments and support from ATIHomeys

Saturday Afternoon Work Session

2008-07-12T13:39:00.000-07:00

	I Want to Do . . .	I Need Help with . . .	I Can Help with . . .
Lauralee	Digital Storytelling (social studies or science) or maybe a wiki. . . .	socially appropriate behavior	digital storytelling (w/ Garage Band & iMovie)
Laurie	Course Website and maybe blogs / wikis	Launching the Thing Applications (b and w)	slideshows, pictures, commentary (all kinds)
Vicki	Digital Storytelling	Digital Storytelling	blogs, Page Creator, PowerPoint, advice
Nicolette	All Things Moodle (workshop, wiki, blog, etc.)		Moodle
Marsha: Plagiarism Blog	Integrating Web 2.0 Digital Storytelling & HDay Discussion Tech & Lit Circles	Finding Suckers (and Focus) Keeping Quiet	problem solving, brainstorming
Sarah	Classroom Blog	Ideas about How to Manage the Thing	GoogleDocs, organization
Catherine	School-Site Google Apps	Ideas re: Fear Factor Faculty Buy in	blogs, photography, layout
Leslie	CPR (for ever and ever--only)	New Blog URL, CPR Presentation	CPR, ideal workspace, saying, "No!"
Tracy	Updating ATI Blog and Agendas	Saying, "No!" Pacing	just ask . . .

How to Use Jing

2008-07-12T11:16:00.001-07:00

Jing is a free screen-capture service that allows you to make graphic images from your computer screen and modify those images to include text boxes, arrows, and the like. Jing also allows you to record screen casts: a "movie" of your keyboard and mouse movements across your screen. Think of the how-to directions and video possibilities!

You can save your images to your computer for printing or for upload to the web, or you can park your images/videos on the Jing website--which means you do not need to monopolize your own online "space" with your saved graphics/movies. Did I mention that this is a free service?

Jing's directions are fairly friendly and easy to follow. If you're interested, please go to www.jingproject.com to download the free software. If you do take advantage of this exciting opportunity, please include your endeavors on your ATI2008 blog so that we may oooh and ahhh appropriately. Thank you.

For samples of Tracy's endeavors, please visit the following sites:

ATI2008 Blogger Directions
RWP Site Council Directions for Posting to Blogger (click on the "Follow this link" link here or there)

2008-07-12T11:05:00.000-07:00

Catherine
Lauralee
Laurie
Leslie
Marsha
Sarah
Tracy
Vicki

2008-07-12T09:15:00.000-07:00

Wikis:
Open-ended: two-way communication that's never really finished--ongoing.
sloppy and temporary
good for planning (qtd. in YouTube) and collaboration
(mostly) free
can be by invitation or open--and this can be changed
edible (sic) by the community
portions can be secure
for money, you can generate a website from the wiki (can compose in wiki and post as website)
finding the wiki is difficult if one does not know where to look
blocked at Loleta Elementary (so are blogs)
good for links

Blogs:
more informal and personal
prettier
best of both worlds (wikis to webpages)
allows for comments without risking content
method of discourse
we can establish who has access
can be more easily located
more in line with how we think: chronological posting with ways to override chronicity (chronology posting allows for asynchronous comments)
system makes sense
easy to reorganize and redecorate
good for links

Websites:
front-end software packages are available, but you've really got to know HTML
pretty sites cost big bucks--unless you have a friend
websites are good for things that don't have to or should not change
one-way communication
good for static information
good for collecting information
can link to more interactive stuff like wikis and blogs and moodles
good for links
good for commerce
one cook in the kitchen

Sundry:
What are social networking sites--FaceBook, MySpace, furl? Blogs with a dash of website.
They do have overlapping features.
How long might they stay separate?
Infotainment
Commerce driven--and socially network driven, too
Education is tagging along. How might we make them follow or accommodate us? How can we drive technology?

Protocol Revisited

2008-07-11T09:16:00.000-07:00

Compose wherever you want: GoogleDocs, Word, Blogger, stone tablet, cocktail napkin
Port to your ATI2008 blog.
Go read others' WRs on their blogs.
Respond using the comment feature on their blogs.

So there.

Building a Blog in Blogger

2008-07-10T16:33:00.000-07:00

The Blog Hunt: What to Look for When You Look at Blogs
For several of the blogs listed on the BlogLog page, please answer the following questions. We suggest you examine blogs from each of the categories--pedagogical, professional, personal, and educators on--and we urge you select titles after you've reviewed the list so that we do not all look at the same three or four blogs. Thank you.

What is the blog's purpose? How does the blogger communicate her purpose? How well does the blog communicate its purpose?
Does the blog address or target a particular audience? If so, how? How might you describe a representative audience member?
In what ways does the blog engage the reader visually?
What elements are present? For example, are there links, video clips, photographic images, graphic images, text, etc.? How do these elements help communicate a message?
Does the blog elicit response? If so, how and/or what kinds of response are evident? To what extent are readers invited to participate: to comment or to post?
What can you learn from the blog's title and URL?

Whole-Group Debriefing: Blogs on Parade

And Now for a Little History: Catherine's Story

Preparing to Blog
What will you name your blog, and what URL will you chose? How might you organize it? (Please be sure to include room for the following elements: vocabulary, related reading, tech-project development, troubleshooting, and FAQs/TechTips.)

Building the Blog

The Wonderful World of Wikis

2008-07-09T20:14:00.000-07:00

Reading: "Interview: The State of Wikis in Education"

In a fresh GoogleDoc (name it anything you want—go wild!), please spend a few minutes recording your reaction to the article. Later, you will post your reflection to your wiki page, but you will have the option of revising it, if you want, before you go public.

Wiki Wanderings: Please review several sample wikis from the “Spawn of Tracy” and the “Wikis in the Big Educational World” WikiLogs. As you explore and analyze these wikis, please use the GoogleDoc you just created to take notes on the following:

What is the wiki's purpose? How does the wikster communicate her purpose? How well does the wiki communicate its purpose?
Does the wiki address or target a particular audience? If so, how? How might you describe a representative audience member?
In what ways does the wiki engage the reader visually?
What elements are present? For example, are there links, video clips, photographic images, graphic images, text, etc.? How do these elements help communicate a message?
Does the wiki elicit response? If so, how and/or what kinds of response are evident? To what extent are readers invited to participate: to comment or to post?
What can you learn from the wiki's title and URL?

Websites, Wikis, and Blogs—Oh, Why?
Knowing what you know about blogs and knowing/observing what you have about wikis and websites, how would you characterize the difference between a website, a blog, and a wiki? Once again, please record your musings on your GoogleDoc.

Creating Your ATI2008 Wiki (Please follow this link to access a printer-friendly version-- with pictures!--of How to Use Seedwiki.)

Writing—Again: How might these different platforms—websites, blogs, and wikis—lend themselves best to different eVentures or projects?

Discussion: Sharing Our Writing, Highlighting Potential Wiki Applications

Back to the Wiki: Please record on your wiki any potential wiki project in which you find merit.

. . . to ATI2008TestWiki
. . . to GeekGoodies: A Collection of Technology Tools by Teachers for Teachers

WikiLog: Wikis in the Big Educational World

2008-07-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

To WikiLog: Spawn of Tracy

WikiLog: Spawn of Tracy

2008-07-09T20:07:00.000-07:00

To WikiLog: Wikis in the Big Educational World

On Digital Storytelling

2008-07-07T15:27:00.000-07:00

Using Technology to Tell Stories: A Place for Sharing Ideas and Projects (National Writing Project)

Taylor Mali's "What Do Teachers Really Make?"

2008-07-07T14:52:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to Nicolette for the introduction.

Taylor Mali's "The Impotence of Proofreading"

2008-07-07T14:51:00.000-07:00

Many thanks to Nicolette for the introduction.

Judson Laipply's "The Evolution of Dance"

2008-07-07T14:40:00.000-07:00

Just for Fun. . . .

Welcome, Techies

2008-06-28T17:34:00.000-07:00

Harriet, Lauralee, Laurie, Marsha, Nicolette, and Sarah, we are so glad you're here.

Our del.icio.us Site Names and Links

2008-06-28T15:24:00.000-07:00

Tracy: tduckart
Leslie: LeslieRae
Marsha: mkmielke
Laurie: llw12
Lauralee: lalagreen
Sarah: deliciousHolmes
Catherine: catharnold
Nicolette: Coming Soon
Harriet: Coming Soon
Vicki: 1VK

Tech Terms: Definitions for Richardson Article

2008-06-27T12:03:00.000-07:00

Blog: Short for "weblog." Online forum for most anything: personal, professional, educational. It can be either one-way or two-way communication. You can choose your viewers, and it can be textual or visual.
Feed: RSS which stands for "Really Simple Syndication." There are different types of feeds. It's a way of subscribing to information regularly. It can be posted to blogs or webpages. They can be emailed or appear in bookmarks or on start-up pages. Feeds can appear or be delivered by widgets.
Podcasting: Digital online audio broadcast. They don't have to be in real time. Webcasts include video. Lots on PBS. MP3 format. They are more frequently being used by people in the private sector. Storytelling. Interviews. Speeches. Frequently used for teaching, distance learning. Social Bookmarking: web-based, publically available space that classifies different web links. Favorites list saved to the web rather than to your own computer. del.icio.us, furl. Taggable lists for searching and organizing. You can see people who have access to your bookmarks, and then you can access theirs because you obviously have something in common. Wiki: Hawaiian for "quick." It's like a whiteboard that anyone can write to/on. Monitored (or not) by the community. Some can be restricted to specific users, and some are available to anyone. Informative--or not. Wikipedia. "I just pooped." Most platforms allow owners to recover from vandalism by keeping all versions of a page to which a person can revert.

Whole-Group Debriefing: Blogs on Parade

2008-06-27T11:32:00.000-07:00

Purpose: Irritation to work at finding the blog's purpose. Blogs should indicate--briefly, toward the start--what the purpose is: personal, educational, what it's doing.
Audience: Title and description and purpose statement can identify audience.
Visual Impact: Good mix of graphics, space, and text. Be really careful with dark backgrounds--hard to read. Hint: check your blogs, wikis, websites from different computers and different ISPs.
Structure: Archives with dates but no topics = bad. Helpful to have titles with purpose identified. Use panels of different colors to organize information. Really good blogs (websites, etc.) allow multiple ways to navigate (tabs, nav bars, etc.). We like smaller visual chunks: move through pages via links rather than scrolling forever. Huge, bold headings = good. Use of different fonts and/or colors to indicate different types of information/material.
Level of Interaction: RSS feeds, ways to join. We like this interaction. With surveys, maybe ask one question at a time to avoid overwhelming participants and to generate response habits. What kinds of responses are evident? Numbers of response do not necessarily indicate the level of interest or quality of information. Too often, responses are crap anyway (knee-jerk reactions, idiotic venting). With Blogger, you can control who can and how folks comment on your blogs.
URLs and Titles: We appreciate specificity and transparency.

Note: Once you title your blog in Blogger, you can't change it. If you need a new URL, you have to start all over.

How to Publish to Blogger from Google Docs

2008-06-26T15:19:00.000-07:00

From an open (and saved!) Google Docs document, select "Publish as web page . . ." from the blue "Share" drop-down menu.
Select the "Post to blog" option.
From the "Blog Site Settings" dialogue box, select "Hosted provider" and Blogger.com.
Provide the requested information and click on the "OK" button. You will know you're successful when the "Republish post" and "Remove from blog" buttons appear.

WR#3--Revisited

2008-06-26T15:15:00.000-07:00

Once you have posted WR#3 to your blog, please visit your colleagues' blogs to read their responses, and use the comment feature to respond to their posts.

To read our responses, please access them off of our ATI2008 blogs.

Participant Contract

2008-06-25T18:37:00.000-07:00

In addition to extrinsic rewards like the welcome gifts (jump drive, travel tumbler) and intrinsic rewards (knowledge, fun, support, resources, camaraderie), ATI2008 participation also comes with a $500 stipend: $200 at the end of the summer, $200 at the end of the 2008-2009 school year, and $100 at the end of your workshop (or approved project). (Please note that the payment plan may change—resulting, most probably, in faster payouts—depending upon RWP budget needs.)

In order to reap these extrinsic and intrinsic benefits, you really must:

Bring morning munchies one day during the summer session.
Attend both days of all three summer sessions.
Commit to making up the activities, time, and contributions of anything you miss.
Attempt everything on the agenda. You don’t have to fall in love with everything we do, and after you’ve tried everything, you can vow never to use/do it again, but we do ask that you try on everything. Otherwise, how will you know how well it fits?
Undertake a modest technology project of your choosing to launch with your students during the 2008-2009 school year—and please do pick something in which you are interested, not just something pressed on you from above, below, or next to you. This is your time.
Maintain an in-house blog to chronicle and support your tech project that includes some WRs, related reading, vocabulary, troubleshooting / FAQ / TechTip information, and other tech-project materials.
Develop and deliver a workshop based on your tech project. If you don’t want to or can’t give a workshop, you must negotiate an alternative project with the RWP Tech Team.
Arrange and attend a coaching session if you give a workshop; participate in someone else’s coaching session if you do not give a workshop.
Participate in monthly school-year eSessions by posting responses to WRs—and do so on time.
Contribute by lending moral support to your colleagues, sharing resources, and offering suggestions for improving the directions/descriptions available on the blog.
Notify Tracy if you want to cloak any WR or deny access to your material once we go public in May 2009. (We will keep our work—WRs, blogs, and the like—private during the 2008-2009 school year, but we would like to “publish” our work and activities at the end of that period. We will respect your privacy, of course; we just need to know what you want kept out of the limelight.)

We acknowledge that the money isn’t great, but we can promise that ATI2008 will deliver that for which the Writing Project is rightfully famous: sanctioned time and support to do the things in our classrooms that we already want to do.

Blogging Resources

2008-06-24T17:06:00.000-07:00

1-Question Interview--Index Page
ProBlogger Darren Rowse "asked 14 of {his} favorite bloggers what they’d do differently if they were starting their blog again today. Their responses were varied" and are available on the index page linked above.

50 Great Widgets for Your Blog
Helpful, fun, and/or sexy additions for your blog: painter-a-day service, world timeclocks, etc.

Blogs in Plain English
A YouTube video demystifying blogs.

CreativeCommons
Free artwork, music, and tools.

Drupal
"Drupal is a free software package that allows an individual or a community of users to easily publish, manage and organize a wide variety of content on a website. Tens of thousands of people and organizations have used Drupal to power scores of different web sites, including community web portals, discussion sites, corporate web sites, intranet applications, personal web sites or blogs, aficionado sites, E-commerce applications, resource directories, and social networking sites."

EduBlogs
This free blogging platform bills itself as "the largest education community on the Internet."

Habits of Highly Successful Bloggers
ProBlogger Darren Rowse lists his readers' responses to the one-question interview he posed to "14 of {his} favorite bloggers."

Feed2Podcast.com
The dotcom makes me think that this product probably isn't free, but it enables bloggers to have people listen to their blogs rather than just reading them. It may prove useful.

MediaMaster
MM bills itself as "the best music experience on the web for accessing, listening and sharing your music collection." It allows you to upload your music and/or radio station to your blog so that you or others may listen to selections from your collection anywhere you can get an Internet collection. This one looks like a feebie to me.

Support Blogging
As "an opportunity for students, teachers, administrators, parents, and others to help promote an understanding of the benefits of educational blogging," SupportBlogging! is an invaluable resource offering linked lists of blogs, bloggers, and blog builders.

Warlick, David F. Classroom Blogging. 2^nd ed. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press, 2007.
This book provides practical, step-by-step advice for teachers about using free web services to establish blogs, wikis and podcasts for classroom use. Warlick’s Blog, Exactly 2 Cents Worth, http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/ has many links to help teachers explore reading / writing / multimedia publishing options available on the web. Among these is http://supportblogging.com/Educational+Blogging

Why Let Our Students Blog?
A YouTube Video by Teachers for Teachers

WordPress
Free blogs and blogging help.

BlogLog

2008-06-24T16:58:00.000-07:00

Personal

Professional

"The Educator's Guide to the Read/Write Web" by Will Richardson

2008-06-24T13:44:00.001-07:00

Did you post to your blog today?" "Have you tried using a wiki for that?" "Furl anything this week?"

No, these aren't survey questions from the Tech Geek Dating Service. They're questions centered around the new content creation and publication tools available for the Internet — tools that many teachers and students are using to enhance learning.

The Internet is no longer simply a place where digital learners consume information. It is now also a forum through which users can publish and broadcast their own writing. Weblogs, wikis, podcasts, and similar tools introduced over the last few years have ushered in the "Read/Write Web," a phenomenon that is changing the face of journalism, politics, business, and other areas of society Classrooms are beginning to feel these effects as well, as thousands of teachers and students use the Web to publish their work, collaborate on projects, and engage in online conversations.

Cool Tools of the Read/Write Web

Let's look at the new technologies that support the Read/Write Web.

As Easy as Posting on a Blog

One key tool is Weblogs, or blogs, which enable anyone to create a personal or group Web site without needing to learn hypertext markup language. All it takes to share content with a worldwide audience is to log in, enter text into a box on the screen, and click on publish. Like traditional Web sites, blogs can incorporate graphics and multimedia. But unlike traditional sites, blogs allow online conversations among users; most blogs allow any visitor to post public comments about the site's contents.

Tens of millions of bloggers around the world, many of them high school students, regularly add their ideas and perspectives to the massive body of information that is the Web. Although many youth treat blogs as simple online diaries, some students and teachers use them as vehicles to draw out critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. Teachers are using blogs to build classroom resource portals and to foster online learning communities. Students create online, reflective, interactive portfolios of their work to share with worldwide audiences.

For example, at Hunterdon High School in Flemington, New Jersey, where I teach, students have used blogs to collaborate with authors of the books they are reading in literature classes; to contact professional mentors in journalism classes; and to communicate with high schoolers from Krakow, Poland, as part of a unit on the Holocaust.

Wikis: The Beauty of Collaboration

Wikis are an even more open and collaborative content creation tool. Wiki is the Hawaiian word for quick. A wiki is a Web site that anyone can edit at any time. The most visible example of the potential of wikis is Wikipedia.org, the online encyclopedia with more than 500,000 entries. Each entry is continually shaped by anonymous contributors who log on to the encyclopedia and add new or clarifying information as the need arises.

Wikipedia is not only an amazing information source but also an example of the power of the Read/Write Web. Every day, thousands of people with no physical connection to one another engage in the purposeful work of negotiating and creating this accurate online resource by editing, deleting, or restoring its content. They do this with no expectation that their contributions will be acknowledged or compensated, understanding that the writing they contribute can be freely edited, modified, or copied by anyone else. There are no technological safeguards against a user putting bogus information into the site or vandalizing an entry; the community of people using the wiki keeps the information accurate by policing itself. If anyone enters erroneous information or vandalizes the site, another user usually repairs the damage. Hard as it is to believe, in the majority of cases the community maintains a high degree of accuracy and appropriateness. The extent and quality of contributions to Wikipedia are truly inspiring. Students and teachers in classes ranging from media studies to physics are collaboratively building their own wikis that feature lists of annotated resources and links relevant to the course curriculum that can be shared with future classes.

Feeds, Social Bookmarking, and Podcasting

Another new digital tool is Really Simple Syndication (RSS). Really Simple Syndication enables people to subscribe to various feeds of information-data that are continually streamed and collected into a file with the help of a tool called an aggregator. RSS aggregators check this information stream as regularly as every hour to see if there is anything new for RSS subscribers to read when they are ready; if there is, the aggregator copies and stores it. Just about all Weblog software automatically generates an RSS feed. When various feeds are collected by an aggregator, keeping up with 50 or even 100 different blogs becomes relatively easy. Any new content that appears on any of the targeted blogs is automatically collected and stored.

Hundreds of traditional media outlets like The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Wall Street Journal now offer RSS feeds for their content. Users can create feeds connected to specific search terms at sites like Yahoo! News, so that any new information about a topic is automatically collected in the aggregator. Teachers and students can use this new way of collecting information to broaden the scope of their reading and research. A student doing a project on global warming, for example, can create RSS feeds that will bring him or her the latest research on the topic almost as soon as it is published.

But collecting information is only half of the process. Certain new tools also enable users to archive and share relevant information. With social book-marking sites like Furl.net and del.icio.us, users can not only save a site address, as traditional bookmarking does, but also save a copy of the Web site itself in a searchable folder. What makes this tool social is the ability to subscribe, without special permission, to RSS feeds of what another user is saving. Social bookmarking enables teachers to leverage the collaborative efforts of like-minded professionals to mine information on the Internet.

Another way to share information on the Web is podcasting, which can best be described as creating amateur home radio programs and widely distributing them on the Web. Thousands of podcasters are creating and broadcasting content that people can listen to whenever their schedule allows, not just at the hour it is broadcast. Students across the United States are podcasting audio tours of local museums and points of interest, weekly news programs about their classrooms, oral histories and interviews, and more. New and easier ways to publish multimedia screen captures and digital video on the Web create even more opportunities for sending multimedia creations to a potentially large audience. Although a student's audience may be limited to teachers and peers at the outset, that audience can quickly grow as the student shares links and ideas with other bloggers and podcasters. The awareness of even a small audience can significantly change the way a student approaches writing and other school assignments. It's the difference between handing a piece in to a teacher and publishing it.

What the New Tools Demand of Us

These new digital tools enable everyday Internet users to digitally disseminate their ideas and experiences, a reality that has implications for leaching. Teachers must consider whether our curriculums should change now that students have the ability to reach audiences far beyond our classroom walls and to acquire their own primary sources. How should we rethink the concept of literacy now that students can instantly become not only readers and writers, but also editors and collaborators? How do we best put to use the reams of writing that this new writable Web provides?

Educators around the world are attempting to answer these tough questions. Adjusting to the Read/Write Web is not as simple as moving students from writing essays on paper to writing essays on a blog. Teachers and students must learn to navigate the complexities that accompany a publishing environment that is more transparent, interactive, and collaborative than ever before.

This explosion of online content demands a more complex definition of what it means to be literate. For more than 100 years, we have defined literacy as being able to read and write. Although those core abilities are still central to learning, however, they are no longer enough to ensure understanding and meaningful participation in the exchange of ideas online. Now that anyone with an Internet connection can publish and disseminate content with no editorial review process, consumers of Web content need to be editors as well as readers. They need to know how to identify the source of a piece of information, gauge that sources reputation, compare the information with what's already known, and make a judgment about its authenticity and relevance. We must teach students how to actively question and evaluate published information instead of passively accepting it as legitimate.

In addition, to take part in this rich digital conversation, teachers and students must become competent in Web publishing. It's no longer enough to simply consume information; we must engage with that information and share what we have learned in appropriate ways. Every person with Internet access now has a multimedia printing press at his or her disposal, an outlet with potential to do as much harm as good. Students need to understand the many ways in which they can appropriately share ideas and creations online. Teachers can facilitate this understanding by taking part in online collaborations, editing Wikipedia, and setting up blogs about their teaching practice.

To be literate in the age of the Read/Write Web means to skillfully manage the flood of information now available. Google regularly scans in information from more than 50 million books from the worlds biggest research libraries, and a new blog is created every two seconds. Literate Internet users need strategies for sorting out, storing, and using relevant information from this outpouring.

Challenging Traditional Pedagogy

The Read/Write Web poses additional challenges to our thinking and methodology as educators. As more content becomes available online, it becomes less appropriate to rely on traditional curriculum delivery methods like textbooks and handouts. More current -and in many cases, more relevant -information is as close as a Google search. Many teachers and students have already begun writing their own textbooks online, cobbling together links and annotated reading lists that future classes can build on. Much like the open source software movement, this "open content" model begs for a more collaborative assembly of course materials.

The Read/Write Web should prompt teachers to rethink their roles. With millions of knowledgeable people posting blogs, for example, students may find scientists, writers, or researchers willing to guide their study of a topic who have more content-area expertise than a classroom teacher. In such situations, the teachers role shifts from a content expert to a guide who shows students how to find and evaluate online resources, communicate with experts whom they encounter online, and publish their own creations that result from such encounters. Classroom teachers should become content creators in their own right so that they can model appropriate use of these tools.

The tools of the Read/Write Web facilitate students collaborative construction of meaningful knowledge. Schools have traditionally demanded that students work independently and produce content mainly for their teacher. Digital tools allow students to easily work together outside school — for example, collaborating on projects through instant messaging or text messaging on phones — and to share the results of that work with a broader audience. We should encourage such collaboration and outreach. Instead of just collecting student work to be graded and discarded at the end of the year, teachers could urge students to publish their work online so that others can learn from that work and interact with students about the ideas it contains.

The Web can also act as a student notebook or portfolio, a searchable repository capturing evidence of what a student has learned throughout his or her education. This gives students opportunities for important metacognitive reflection on their own learning.

Risks and Benefits

Obviously, the transparency created by the Read/Write Web creates risks as well as opportunities. Schools need to think through the potential privacy and safety implications that go along with widespread publishing of student-created content. How widely students should post their work online and whether they should connect their names with it depend on a range of factors — including the comfort level of adults involved, the capabilities of the software being used, and differing state and national laws.

Because much of the educational value of tools that enable students to publish their work online stems from students' potential to reach a broad audience, such decisions are crucial. Teachers employing these tools must monitor student use and teach students how to use the tools safely to enhance learning. We must also show students how to deal with inappropriate content that they may come across during their Web travels. Some schools attempt to block inappropriate Web sites from students, whereas other schools teach students how to make intelligent decisions about content that they encounter and how to react wisely if they stumble across something unsuitable.

I believe that the potential enhancements to student learning that the new Read/Write Web entails outweigh these manageable risks. The Web has become a vehicle through which students and teachers can share what they have learned in meaningful, purposeful ways. It is a place where students of disparate backgrounds can build connections and learn collaboratively with mentors and experts. And it's a place where every person with Internet access can join an ongoing global conversation.

The old read-only Web was itself a transformative technology that changed the way our students work, learn, and communicate. The new Read/Write Web will change their lives even more.

Tools like blogs, wikis, and podcasts help students find authentic audiences for their work.

~~~~~~~~

By Will Richardson

Will Richardson is Supervisor of Instructional Technology at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, New Jersey; 908-310-6546; weblogged@gmail.com. He is author of the upcoming book The Educator's Guide to Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Dynamic Internet Tools That Are Transforming Classrooms (Corwin Press, March 2006).

Richardson, Will. "The Educator's Guide to the Read/Write Web." Educational Leadership 63.4 (2006): 24-28. Academic Search Elite. EBSCOhost. Humboldt State University. 24 July 2007 . http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.humboldt.edu/ehost.

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A Good Tech Project . . .	A Bad Tech Project . . .
Develops from the teacher's own experience with technology. In other words, the teacher must have *really used* the technology she plans to teach her students.	Involves a complicated technology that the teacher attempts to master along with her students.
Knows what the technology is--and whether it will work in the actual classroom. Go to school; try it. Before the kids get there.	Is too much to take on during a busy school year. Keeping it modest.
Is linked to content standards.	Leads to breakdown and divorce. Bad. How do we talk about maintenance?
Needs to make the curriculum more accessible.	Is not much more than bells and whistles.
Addresses technology standards	Is more about the technology than about the curriculum.
NCLB ==> assessing digital learning	Happens in isolation.
Invites colleague buy-in.	Creates redundancy.
Includes some kind of aspect for classroom community.	Does not maintain consistency in content for documents in multiple "places."
Invites parents and community members.	Does not account for the lifeline of the product itself. Is not flexible: cannot change with the software, platforms, delivery systems, hardware.
Creates opportunities for learning and communicating within the classroom AND, then, opportunities for extending beyond the classroom--for taking advantage of the global iCommunity.	Costs money.
Can help our students to get ready for--to navigate, competently--the next thing: college, vocational school, workplace.	Includes no clear sense of outcomes--for ourselves and for our students.
Is relevant to students--right now.	Does not account for the Digital Divide.
Addresses parameters head on: netiquette, appropriate behaviors, "multi-tasking."	EATS TIME: how much time we spend putting it together and maintaining it, how much time it "takes away" from the pedagogy, how the timeline fits into the unit/semester/whatever.
Allows for multiple accesses (provides enough time for students who do not have access to the technology at home to use the technology at school or in the library).	Ignores for whom is the MTP valuable: for the teacher or for the students? both? Does this matter?

Tracy Duckart

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Tracy Duckart
Redwood Writing Project Technology Programs Director
Humboldt State University Acting Composition Director
Humboldt State University Composition Instructor
National Writing Project Tech Liaison Network Leadership Team Member

tdd2@humboldt.edu | 707.826.5958 | www.humboldt.edu/~tdd2

On Wikis

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For a List of Additional Wiki Articles and Papers from Using Wiki in Education

On Web 2.0 and Technology in General

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Shari Dinkins' "Learning to Teach Tech-Savvy Students" (Inside Higher Ed)
The Machine is Us/ing Us (YouTube)
Digital Divide? What Digital Divide? (T.H.E. Journal) An article about social networking by students, complete with statistics, to support why teachers need to teach digital citizenship.
International Education Technology Standards for Students (International Society for Technology in Education 2007)
"Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK): Confronting the Wicked Problems of Teaching with Technology" (Michigan State University)

On RSS

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Chris Heuer's "Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic and RSS--The 4 Rs" (Social Media Club)
Kevin Hodgson's "Bringing the World to My Doorstep: A Teacher's Blog-Reading Habits" (National Writing Project)

On Blogging

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Gail Desler's Instruction Manual for Edublogs (National Writing Project)
Kevin Hodgson's "Bringing the World to My Doorstep: A Teacher's Blog-Reading Habits" (National Writing Project)
Moderating and Ethics for the Classroom Instructional Blog (T.H.E. Journal)
Katie Ash's "Educators Test the Limits of Twitter Microblogging Tool" (Digital Directions: Trends and Advice for K-12 Technology Leaders)
Anne Davis' "Rationale for Educational Blogging" (University of Georgia)

Follow this BlogLog link for a long list of sample blogs. Please also check out the Blogging Resources page.

How to Upload Video

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To upload a video to Blogger, click the second icon from the right. The icon resembles a film strip and is labeled add video. The click will open a menu box. You may browse your computer to locate the video, or enter a web address. Add a title for your video, agree to the Upload Terms and Conditions, then hit the orange Upload button.

How to Use Page Creator

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Page Creator connects to your blog through a link. The advantage of using Page Creator is that it can be printed or read by your audience without the distractions of other posts or comments. Follow this link to print the instructions and see an example.

To return to this page use the back button.

How to Use del.icio.us

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Social Bookmarking in Plain English

How to Use iGoogle

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iGoogle is a personalized start-up, or homepage. It allows one to customize a web browser by adding web feeds and gadgets. A mini product tour is available here:

In order to personalize a page, first create a Google Account beginning at the Google Accounts Page.

Google Apps contains free web applications and allows one to customize a domain name for use with a particular organization or group of people. Applications include Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs and Sites. The Education Edition is free.

How to Use Seedwiki

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Creating a Seedwiki Account
Go to www.seedwiki.com and look under the green “atomic data” box in the upper, right-hand corner of the screen.

If you already have an account, please sign in now.
If you do not yet have an account, please create one by clicking on the blue “start your own account” link and provide the requested information.
When you finish either step, click on the blue “start a new wiki” link.
Please carefully select your wiki title for relevance of topic, ease of recall, and appearance in title. You might consider a “wiki construction” by judiciously using capital letters to avoid spaces (which will show up in your URL as _ ) like “wikiDic” or “sproutWiki” or “TechWeenieWiki.” Seedwiki will keep prompting you for a wiki name if the one you entered is already taken.

Creating Your Wiki's Homepage
When you first create it, your wiki homepage looks, well, like crap. So here's what to do:

Click on the “Edit” button in the gray menu bar on the top of the page. You will soon find yourself on a wordprocessory-looking page. Just as you would in Word, highlight everything in the text area and delete it.
Find an appropriate location for a list of your wiki’s sections (a table of contents, if you will, or link list), type each topic or descriptor, and then place [square brackets] around that description.
Now click on the “Save Your Changes” button. Doing so will get you back to our homepage where you will see the description you typed followed by a blue (hyperlinked) question mark.
Clicking on the question mark will direct you to your new page.

Keeping Abreast of Contributions
If you want to be notified of changes and contributions to your wiki, you can create a subscription that will automatically send you an email whenever you or others make changes. You will need to subscribe only once, and you can always cancel your subscription later. To subscribe, once you’re on your home page, please click on the “subscribe to wiki” link located above the “log out” button on the left-hand side of the screen.

Embracing the Medium (or: Don't Fear the Wiki)
The wonder of wikis is that anyone can add or change or delete content from any page. That means that we can support each other by adding content or clarity to material others of us have posted. And please do not worry about ruining yours or anyone else's page: Seedwiki keeps track of all the changes made—follow the “versions” tab at the top of the screen--allowing contributors to revert to a previous version of that page. So if you or another contributor (or a vandal) mess something up, you can erase that mess by reverting to a previous version. See? It's goof proof. So relax. And have fun.

Seedwiki Tips
Accepting Seedwiki:

The first thing you need to know is that Seedwiki works best with Firefox and that Seedwiki hates Safari; it's ambivelent about Explorer.
The second thing you need to know is that Seedwiki usually does not support the right-click option. Oh, right clicking will bring up a menu, but you can't use it. It's an unkind tease. Use your browser's edit menu instead.

Creating a Link on Seedwiki:

Highlight the word(s) you want to link, and then click on the “Insert/Edit Link” icon: the blue globe with a chain link in front of it located just above the font-selection box. Type in the URL as prompted; hit “okay.” This is one of the few instances in which the right-click paste function will work. Go figure.
If you want to get fancy, once you've created your link, highlight that link, right click to find the "Edit Link" option, select the "Target" tab from the resultant dialogue box, and then specify "New Window" so that you link will open in a new window.

Copying an Image to Seedwiki:

First Method: Right click on the image you want to copy; from the right-click menu, select “Copy Image Location.” Return to the page edit section of your wiki page, and click on the “Insert/Edit Image” icon, the one that looks like a little, yellow envelope near the right-hand corner of the page. Once the “Image Properties” dialogue box appears, paste the URL you copied with the right click into the URL box. DO NOT click “okay”; instead, in the same dialogue box, click on the “Upload” tab. NOW you may click “okay.”
Second Method: Right click on the image you want to copy; from the right-click menu, select “Save Image As” and remember where you parked the image (desktop, etc.). Return to the page edit section of your wiki page, and click on the “Insert/Edit Image” icon, the one that looks like a little, yellow envelope near the right-hand corner of the page. Once the “Images Properties” dialogue box appears, select the “Upload or Download Image” button, which will open the “Coldfusion File Manager” dialogue box. Once there, click on the “Browse” button, and find the image you just saved to your desktop (or wherever you saved it). Once the filename appears in the “Upload File” box, click on the “Upload” button. That will return you to the “Image Properties” dialogue box. Click “Okay.”

Positioning an Image in Seedwiki:
I frequently use tables when I add graphics to my wiki sites. If you want to add tables to your wiki page, follow these steps:

While in edit mode, place your cursor in the spot where you want to place your table. Click on the “Insert/Edit Table” icon: the white box with the blue top located between the smiley and the “Insert/Edit Picture” icon.
Determine the number of rows and columns you wish. If you want a border around your table, select its thickness by increasing the border size. I usually set mine to zero, however, because I like an invisible table. Click “Okay.”
Type directly into the cells, cut and paste text into the cells, insert pictures into the cells—whatever you want to do.

The seedwiki site offers a good deal of help, so I’ll not duplicate that information here—except to mention that both the “directory” and “changes” buttons on the left side of the screen lead to a screen with a tabbed menu. The “control panel & how to” tab leads to a pretty helpful menu, and I’ve found all kinds of neat things there. Check ‘em out. And play! Please.

How to Use Google Docs

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Go to Google, and click on the “Sign in” link in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
If you do not yet have a Google account, please take this opportunity to create one now by clicking on the “Create an account now” link in the middle of the right-hand side of the screen.
If you do have a Google account, please sign in now.
Once you’re back at the familiar Google search screen, select “Documents” from the “more‚” drop-down menu.
To post your response to a writing prompt, please create a new document by selecting the “Document” link from the "New" drop-down menu in the upper left-hand corner of the screen.
Please save your new document immediately by clicking on “Untitled” in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. Please include in your title the following information: ATI2008, your name, and the number of the writing prompt to which you are responding (ATI2008: Tracy's WR#1). Thank you.
Type your response to the writing prompt.
When you are ready to publish your response—to make it visible to our group only—please save your document and then click on the “Docs Home” link in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Once there, open the "ATI2008: Our Email Addresses for Copy and Paste."
Copy the email addresses, click on the “Docs Home” link in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, and from there, open your WR document again.
Now use the blue "Share" button in the upper right-hand portion of your screen, and select the first option: "Share with others." Invite us as "collaborators," please, and leave the bottom two boxes checked. Once you've hit the "Invite collaborators" button, you can skip sending the invitation. You will know you are successful when you see our email addresses appear as collaborators in the right-hand portion of the screen.
To edit any entry--yours or one to which another has invited you--simply click on the title to open that document and edit.

Google Docs in Plain English

How to Use Blogger

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Follow this link to download a printer-friendly version of these directions (with pictures!).

Go to Google: www.google.com.
Click on “Sign in.”
If you already have a Google account, sign in now. If you don’t, create one now. Please note that if you create an account, you will also need access to your email account to retrieve the confirmation information.
Once you have signed in, follow the “My Account” link in the upper right-hand corner of the screen, and locate the Blogger option.
Follow the “Blogger” link, and sign in to Blogger using your Google password.
Click on the blue “Create Your Blog Now” button. Follow the steps to create your blog: decide what to call your blog, how to find it, and what it will look like. You can always change your blog’s design later, but you cannot change the URL, so please select carefully: select a blog title that describes your blog's content and that is, preferably, easy to remember).
To post a message or to publish your work, click on the “New Post” link. To change the look of your blog, click on the “Customize” link.
Once you are on the “Customize” page, find the "Template" tab. From the “Template” tab, you can add page elements (like a video bar, links to your favorite websites, pictures, inspirational quotations, lists of favorite authors, etc.), you can rearrange these elements on your page (even after you’ve added content), you can change your font colors and sizes, and you can select a new template.

Every new post you create shows up in the center of your blog space. That might be okay with you, especially if you've set your blog to accept a large number of posts, but if you want to simplify your layout--and the navigation--consider setting your blog to show zero posts (go to "Customize," then "Settings," then "Formatting"--then set the "Show" number to zero posts), and then create and link to separate pages in your blog (as I've done with our "Creating Your Blog" and "About the Presenters" portions of this blog).

Click on the "New Post" option located in the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
Title your post. Put something--anything--in the post body.
Once you have completed your post, click on the orange "PUBLISH POST" button at the bottom left of the screen. (You can always go back to revise your post--even after you publish it.)
Select "Edit Posts" tab, and click on the “View” link next to the post you just created.
Once you arrive at the view of page you just posted, right click once in the browser's address line, and from the resultant pop-up menu, select "Copy."
To place the link, go to "Customize," and edit one of the links page elements you have already created, or create a new links section by clicking on the "Adding a Page Element" links and adding "Links List."
Title your Links List (Assignments, Essays, Problem Sets--whatever you need), paste the URL you copied in step five, and title the "New Site Name" (Assignment #425, Persuasive Essay, Calculating Sine Problem Set, etc.).
Click on the orange "Save Changes" button, and then view your blog to see what you've created. Note: you can also link to another website (blog, image, video feed, etc.) by starting again at step six and pasting that link into the URL space.

The “Settings” tab in the “Customize” screen grants access to several important options. From the “Settings” menu, you can select “Comments” to decide who can leave comments on your blog and whether you want to protect against spamming by selecting the “Word Verification” option. The “Permissions” screen allows you to determine who can read your blog, to invite readers/contributors, and to grant administrative status. Play. Have fun. You can always change your mind later. Just do not hit the big, blue “Delete This Blog” button on the “Basic” page!

To make sure your ATI2008 colleagues can access your blog, please:

Follow the "Customize" link, and open the "Settings" tab.
Select "Permissions" and in the "Blog Readers" box, select "Only People I Chose," and then click on the blue "ADD READERS" button.
Paste our email addresses (from the ATI2008: Our Email Addresses Google Doc) into the appropriate box. Once you've finished, click on the orange "INVITE" button.

Follow this BlogLog link for a long list of sample blogs. Please also check out the Blogging Resources page.

How to Start a Blog

Writing Prompt #20

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Writing Prompt #19

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Writing Prompt #18

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Writing Prompt #17

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Writing Prompt #16

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Writing Prompt #15

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Writing Prompt #14

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Writing Prompt #13

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Writing Prompt #12

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Writing Prompt #11

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Please create the following three elements for your MTP:

A Project Title or Name
An Evaluation Plan
A Timeline

You might find that reviewing your responses to WR#7 and WR#8 helps.

Writing Prompt #10

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Please draft a document associated with your Modest Tech Project (MTP). The document might represent a set of directions for your students, an assignment, a letter to parents, an article for your school newsletter, a mission statement--anything you like. The only stipulation is that the document represents something you need to write for your project anyway.

We will have time during our August session to gather feedback on the document, so please do not feel the need to respond to others' documents (besides, you have enough homework to do without that additional step).

Park the document wherever you want: on your blog, in GoogleDocs, on a wiki page, on a GooglePage, on an actual piece of real paper. Make the decision based on the type of assistance you want from your colleagues in August (generalized response, in-text commentary, formatting/eding suggestions, etc.).

Writing Prompt #9

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This one should look familiar. . . .

Read at least one tech-related article and 1) identify and summarize the article, 2) respond to it, and 3) develop a Writing Response prompt that grows from your reading.

Some things to consider:

Topic Selection: Do you want to read an article relating to something you encountered this weekend? something related to your tech project? or something about which you want to learn more? The choice is yours.
Article Selection: Do you want to make your selection from the "For Your Reading Pleasure" list located at the foot of our blog, or do you want to locate an article on your own? (If you locate an interesting article that does not already appear on our list, please email the link to Tracy at tdd2@humboldt.edu so it can be added to our blog's eLibrary. Thank you.)
Prompt Selection: As you craft this portion of WR#9, please think about prompts to which you would like to respond. The prompt does not need to rely upon the article you read--but it can. We will collect these WR prompts and use the most promising to generate school-year follow-though reflections.

Please complete WR#9 by Monday, August 4. Please respond to others' posts before Friday, August 8. Please follow our latest WR Protocol. Thank you.

Writing Prompt #8

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What will TP success mean to you? How might you measure that success?

Please do not read or respond to your colleagues' WR#8 because we are actually going to talk about this one.

Please follow our latest WR Protocol. Thank you.

Writing Prompt #7

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Please describe your current version of your Modest Tech Project (MTP). Why have you selected this MTP? What technology (hardware, software, access) does it require? How do you plan to launch it? When will you launch it during the school year? How long will it take, and how do you plan to pace it?

Please do not read or respond to your colleagues' WR#7 because we are actually going to talk about this one. I'm not sure when we'll fit it in, but we are going to try to talk about it.

Please follow our new protocol:

Compose wherever you want: GoogleDocs, Word, Blogger, stone tablet, cocktail napkin
Port to your ATI2008 blog.
Go read others' WRs on their blogs.
Respond using the comment feature on their blogs.

Writing Prompt #6

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You have probably already been doing this mentally, so list the technology you have at your fingertips. Once it’s in black and white (or whatever color you choose!), it’s easier to consider.

What is in your room? What do you have that you have not used fully?
Next, list what is available to you outside your room. What do you need to do to be able to access it?
Did your school pay for the video streaming package? Have you browsed it and bookmarked clips to use with specific units?
List units that you could easily add a technology component to—either on your part or your students.

As you think of things, keep your lists going so you can refer back to it after your brain is saturated. Read over everyone else’s list and borrow ideas! Remember, no matter what the grade level—everything can be adapted.

Please follow our new WR Protocol:

Compose and post WRs on GoogleDocs.
Share.
Upload WR from GoogleDocs to ATI2008 blog.
Comment to WRs through blog.

Writing Prompt #5

2008-06-15T14:34:00.005-07:00

Please take a few moments to share your activities, tech-wise or not, over the two weeks between Session One and Session Two.

Please post your response to Google Docs. Follow this link for directions.

Please also read one other person's WP#5 and add a response to her GoogleDoc.

Writing Prompt #4

2008-06-15T14:34:00.003-07:00

Read at least one tech-related article and 1) identify and summarize the article, 2) respond to it, and 3) develop a Writing Response prompt that grows from your reading.

Some things to consider:

Topic Selection: Do you want to read an article relating to something you encountered this weekend? something related to your tech project? or something about which you want to learn more? The choice is yours.
Article Selection: Do you want to make your selection from the "For Your Reading Pleasure" list located at the foot of our blog, or do you want to locate an article on your own? (If you locate an interesting article that does not already appear on our list, please email the link to Tracy at tdd2@humboldt.edu so it can be added to our blog's eLibrary. Thank you.)
Prompt Selection: As you craft this portion of WR#4, please think about prompts to which you would like to respond. The prompt does not need to rely upon the article you read--but it can. We will collect these WR prompts and use the most promising to generate school-year follow-though reflections.

Please post your response to Google Docs (follow this link for directions) and to your blog. To read our responses, please access them off of our ATI2008 blogs.

Please complete WR#4 by Monday, July 7. Please respond to someone else's WR#4 before Friday, July 11. Thank you.

Writing Prompt #3

2008-06-15T14:34:00.001-07:00

Over the next half hour, please answer as many of these questions as you can. You may not be able to get to every question, so please start with the questions you find most interesting. Please also make full use of the full thirty minutes, returning to rethink / retool / re-investigate earlier responses if you finish before we call time.

What technology do you want to learn?
What technology have you heard about?
What technology have you tried and hated? Why?
What technology have you tried and loved? Why?
Complete this sentence: I hate when my students. . . .
Complete this sentence: I see opportunity with. . . .
Complete this sentence: I’d like to be able to take this project / unit / lesson further. . . .
Complete this sentence: This is a good project / unit / lesson if only it had. . . .
Complete this sentence: If I knew how to do X, I would. . . .

Please do not share your document (although others will read and respond shortly); neither should you read / respond to others' posts. Yet. Thank you.

To read our responses, please access them off of our ATI2008 blogs.

Writing Prompt #2

2008-06-15T14:33:00.002-07:00

After reading Will Richardson's "The Educator's Guide to the Read/Write Web," please think--and write--about some element of your pedagogy that could benefit from a technology infusion. If you’ve already selected a tech project (digital storytelling, for example), please feel free to focus on how you want to infuse that thing into your curriculum, what you want it to support.

Please post your response to Google Docs. Follow this link for directions.

Please also read one other person's WP#2 and add a response to that document.

To read our responses, please access them off of our ATI2008 blogs.

Writing Prompt #1

2008-06-15T14:33:00.001-07:00

Why are you here? What do you plan to gain from this experience? How can we--the Tech Team, ATI2008 participants--help you realize your technology aspirations? Are you worried about anything?

Please post your response to Google Docs. Follow this link for directions.

Once you've posted your response, please read and respond to someone else's. Thank you.

To read our responses, please access them off of our ATI2008 blogs.

Our ATI2008 Blogs

2008-06-15T14:25:00.000-07:00

Friday, June 27, 2008

2008-06-15T14:16:00.004-07:00

(Re)Introductions, Preview, Contract, and Goodies
Stoplight Vocabulary: Taking Stock (Blog, Wiki, Webpage, RSS, Podcast, Digital Storytelling, Flash Drive, Email, PDA, MP3, Social Bookmarking, Listserv, HTML, Webcast, Flickr, Skype, Google, YouTube / TeacherTube, Screen Capture, Calibrated Peer Review, Photoshop, Creative Commons)
To the Computers!

Firefox and Tabbed Browsing
Your Google Account
Our ATI2008 Blog

Google Docs
Writing Response #1
Building Your ATI2008 Blog
Lunch
More Blogging: Please create a few bogus (or otherwise) posts so that we can show you some cool Blogger stuff (linking, ordering, organizing, grouping). Thanks.
Preparing to Read Richardson
Reading Richardson: "The Educator's Guide to the Read/Write Web"
Writing Response #2: Responding to Richardson
Talking out (of) the Day

___________________________________________________________________

Saturday, June 28, 2008

2008-06-15T14:16:00.003-07:00

Writing Response #3: Gearing up for the Modest Tech Project
Publishing from Google Docs to Blogger
Writing Response #3--Revisited
Social Bookmarking with del.icio.us
Please create a del.icio.us page, populate it, add ATI2008 participant pages to your network, and add the network badge, link roll, tag roll, or daily blog posting to your ATI2008 blog.
Lunch
A Luxurious Afternoon of Self-Directed, Self-Selected Tech Work
Talking out (of) the Day
And Then Came the Homework. . . .

Friday, July 11, 2008

2008-06-15T14:16:00.001-07:00

Morning Munchies Reunion
WR#5
Back in the Saddle: Updating and Tidying Our ATI2008 Blogs

Please use the "republish post" in GoogleDocs to include your colleague comments to WR#4.
From your del.icio.us page, please add the network badge, link roll, tag roll, or daily blog posting to your ATI2008 blog.
Check out the free blog widgets available, and add at least one to your blog.

Break
Technology Cornucopia: PowerPoint Presentations for "Sponge Activities" (Fountainhead Architecture, Romeo and Juliet Prologue, Poetry Quotations); SAT Question of the Day (a free service of the College Board for Math and English); Microsoft Word Functions: comment, track changes, electronic chalkboard MLA formatting
WR#6
Lunch
The Wonderful World of Wikis
Talking out (of) the Day: The Best Platform for the Job

Saturday, July 12, 2008

2008-06-15T14:15:00.001-07:00

Morning Munchies
Google Pages
Break
Tech Project Stories
Calibrated Peer Response, Part I
The Big WR Posting Decision
WR#7: Envisioning the Tech Project
The Making of a Good Tech Project
WR#8: Measuring the Tech Project
Lunch
A Luxurious Afternoon of Self-Directed, Self-Selected Tech Work
Talking out (of) the Day
And Then Came the Homework: Complete WR#8; Do WR#9; Do WR#10; and, if You'e So Inclined, Make a Jing Attempt

Friday, August 8, 2008

2008-06-15T14:14:00.000-07:00

Show Me the Money: Level of Effort Forms, Payment Schedule, and Morning Munchies
Group Discussion: The Making of a Good Tech Project
WR#10 Response Triads

Process: Each participant gets 15 minutes of written response from her two group members (30 minutes total), and then each participant gets seven minutes of spoken response from each of her group members

Groups

Harriet, Lauralee, Tracy/Catherine
Marsha, Sarah, Vicki
Laurie, Leslie, Nicolette

A Luxurious Hour of Self-Directed, Self-Selected Tech Work
Lunch
Digital Storytelling Workshop: ATI Participants on ATI2008: Our Story

Saturday, August 9, 2008

2008-06-15T14:13:00.000-07:00

Morning Munchies Reunion
CPR Part Deux
Break
WR#11
Group Discussion: From MTP to Inservice: Using Your ATI2008 Blog to Prep a Workshop & How to Get Coaching and Schedule a Workshop
Lunch
A Luxurious Afternoon of Self-Directed, Self-Selected Tech Work
Talking Out (of) the Day: Show and Tell