Adventures in Teaching and Learning

Most of my daily CPD these days (and yes, it is almost daily) comes from Twitter. This morning, via a link to a blog, I found a link to a slideshare presentation, which I found so interesting that I thought I’d share it here.

Thanks to Rod Lucier, also known as the Clever Sheep, for this presentation. As well as the obviously useful information about collaboration, and the examples of site and applications that can support working together in education, I think this is about the first time I’ve sat and watched a slideshare presentation while listening to the voiceover. As I have an ICT in RE presentation to prepare, I think I ought to have a go at doing that as well, if I have time!!

I also thought I’d add a link to the Web 2.0 Tools site mentioned by Rod in his presentation.

I am busily trying to produce resources that I can upload to Fronter. Here is a Wordle for Matthew 5:17 – 7:5.

title="Wordle: Matthew 5:17 - 7:5 NIV"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/701562/Matthew_5%3A17_-_7%3A5_NIV"
alt="Wordle: Matthew 5:17 - 7:5 NIV"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">

As well as producing visual images such as these, I have been using CompFight (bizarre name, great tool) to find Flickr images that are Creative Commons, then I have used SimplyBox to quickly store them so I can access them whenever I want. I have also made some of my own images, which I have saved in my own Flickr resource set. Later, I shall save some of these presentations (which I am making using Keynote) to Slideshare.

I feel that since I have been blogging so little recently, and using Twitter so much, I should share some of the interesting links that I have discovered, and some of the interesting twitterers that I follow. (If I mention you, and you wish me to remove you, please let me know via the comment box – or DM me on Twitter!)

Twitterholic – According to their website, Twitterholic “robots scan the Twitter public timeline for new twits to tweet. A few times a day, we calculate individual statistics for each twittering twit in our database.” You can look up your own stats to see what your ranking is; however, it is also useful to see who the most popular Twitterers are (Barack Obama followed by Stephen Fry, as of Friday 13 February 2009). Jonathan Ross joined only 75 days ago, and he is already at number 12.

Mr Tweet is my next recommendation. When you follow him, he will suggest people that you might like to follow, including people who are particularly relevant to you, based on what you twitter about. I found loads of interesting technological educators … which brings me to my next site.

TwitterSheep is like Wordle for Twitter. If you enter your username, TwitterSheep will look at the bios of your followers and come up with a word cloud. You can see mine (well, my most recent one) on TwitPic here. Alternatively you can search among your own tweets to see what you tweet about. Mine was too big to take a screenshot …

TwitPic could do with some more explaining. Well, not much explaining. You can upload photos or send them from your mobile, and these will be added as a link to your twitter feed.

I’ve just uploaded TweetDeck to my computer. So it’s maybe not the best time to give any sort of opinion! But it gets good write ups elsewhere, and Phillip Schofield uses it. Along with loads of other people. You can see everyone’s tweets, but you can also make groups; I can therefore follow my personal friends, helpful educational twitterers, people who tweet about Malawi and celebrities, as well as getting my BBC updates etc.

Twitter_Tips is an interesting general twitterer to follow: this application (?) posts links to interesting general Twitter news.

I’ve mentioned Terry Freedman a number of times now on my blog. I often get links to interesting articles via him. I recently came across Alvin Trusty (via his excellent blog post on how to create a great powerpoint). Another twitterer worth following is Tom Barrett, particularly for links to such excellent presentations such us Nineteen (and counting) Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom.

Hmmm. There are so many more. I am following just over 100 people, many of them top class “edtech” folk, who obviously live interesting lives and also provide me with links to fascinating posts and news about new technology in education. I had hoped to add some links to a few of the interesting recent news and posts about Twitter that I have read in the last couple of days, but it is Saturday the Fourteenth now, rather than Friday the Thirteenth, and I have to get some sleep! I hope there has been something of interest to you in this post. Which will be twittered on my Twitter feed at some point in the near future …

ADDED LATER:
50 ideas on using Twitter in education – thanks to Carol Cooper-Taylor, whose blog I found via Twitter_Tips.

A directory of Learning Professionals (and others) on Twitter – digital breadcrumbs meant I went from Carol’s blog to Jane Hart’s blog, to her Twitter page, to her other blog, to here! I also found Twitlet through her. Many thanks, Jane!

Some of you may wish to join and add to the Twitter for Teachers wiki.

I’ve just found Clif’s Notes … on Twitter in Education. There are plenty of links there that you could follow to find out more. Clif’s Notes linked to Tom Barrett’s post on using Twitter in the classroom, in a Maths lesson on probability. Nice one!

It’s the end of the year, the time when people reflect on their past year and set resolutions for the new year. So here are the reflections. Resolutions may – or may not! – follow.

January – Made a snowman! Will that feat be repeated this Christmas? Saw Doris Lessing at the Southbank Centre.

February – Loved Sweeney Todd the Barber with Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter. Earthquake. Had an excellent FairTrade Fortnight Sixth Form RE Conference, which involved baking, football, FairTrade prizes and taste tests, as well educational input from different departments.

March – Enjoyed a lovely Holy Week and Easter Triduum. Discovered the National Gallery. Led some blogging inset at the Marist School – hope everyone is getting on with their blogging! Summarised some of the many excellent teacher and student blogs out there.

April – Collected my marked dissertation. Heard the sad news that Steve Sinnott had died. It snowed in London. Fiona, a friend from home, visited, and had fun being tourists in London, visiting the British Museum, Tower Bridge, Tate Modern and others. Samson and I watched the London Marathon. My friend Bridget got married. Appeared, with my Year 7 class, on Teachers’ TV.

May – The weather improved dramatically. Saw Chris Rock at the O2. Found the Awesome Highlighter website (which I haven’t really used, so I’m posting this here to remind me!). Spent ages surfing the net and writing about the applications I found there. Enjoyed meeting up with the TTP second cohort to talk about my experiences of Web 2.0. Started some classes on Web 2.0 for teachers at school. Took my Year 9s to the National Gallery as part of a Learning Outside the Classroom project.

June – Discovered Wordle! Presented a session on blogging at the Sixth Form Conference. Visited the Thames Barrier. Went to the Anthony Clark’s ordination as a deacon.

July – Samson’s book, The Jive Talker, was published! Read the reviews here, and buy a copy from Amazon here! The second cohort of the Transformation Teachers’ Programme had a lovely meal. I graduated with my Masters (MA in Education: Teaching and Learning) from Middlesex University. Weather was still very hot and humid. Enjoyed the Doctor Who Prom. Started making videos of clouds, taken using my camera and a tripod. Enjoyed lots of balmy evening walks during the summer holidays. Went paddling at the V&A pool. Bliss. Visited Westminster Cathedral to take photos for the department. Finished the month with the launch of the Jive Talker at Rivington Place.

August – The Jive Talker was published in North America (and can be bought on Amazon here). Discovered the Thames Cruiser. Went to a wedding reception. Enjoyed the Beijing Olympics Opening Ceremony, and then fulltime coverage, all day, every day! Went to Brighton for the day. Went back home to Scotland for a holiday. Met my little Canadian cousin for the first time. One particularly good day was when we travelled through Fife, visiting the Deer Centre, and my old university town of St Andrews.

September – Celebrated my birthday. Back to school! Very busy, but in a good way. We attended the launch of the New Art Exchange, where Samson was taking part in the opening exhibition, Next We Change Earth.

October – The term did not get any quieter! I became Acting Head of Department, so even more work! Visited East Dulwich for the first time, with a family friend. Visited the Saatchi Gallery. Enjoyed teaching my Year 7 Integrated (Humanities) Curriculum about China. Saw Toni Morrison at the Southbank Centre.

November – Went to the Diocesan Heads of RE Conference. Found PhotoBox and Fotonauts. Went to Martin Creed’s flat/exhibition in Brick Lane. Enjoyed Quantum of Solace. Collected together a lot of different Advent resources. Very excited about the election of Barack Obama, as were all the pupils at school.

December – Have enjoyed meeting up with friends, and look forward to meeting up with more friends and family over the next few weeks. We had a lovely carol service today at school, and I am delighted to finally be on holiday! My camera has pretty much given up over the past few months, so I’m hoping to get a new one to record many of the exciting and interesting events that I expect to experience throughout 2009 – starting with the birth of my first niece or nephew!

Thank you for visiting my blog, whether for the first time today, or regularly over the past year, and I hope to be able to share some of my further adventures in teaching and learning, particularly involving Web 2.0, over the next 12 months. I wish you all a very peaceful and joyful Christmas and a happy New Year!

See my Tabblo>

View my page on Classroom 2.0

Hopefully the badge does the trick! I’m not sure what to do with Classroom 2.0 now though … so many social networking sites to keep an eye on!

That is the question that Terry Freedman is asking on his blog, and he is asking bloggers / writers to complete a survey which can be found here, with their views on the difference. So first of all, I thought I’d put up the link in case any of my readers would like to complete the survey to help Terry with his research.

Anyway, it’s an interesting question. I enjoy blogging, but some of the topics I blog about aren’t exactly what I would choose to write about if I were writing fiction, for example. Last November I took part in NaNoWriMo, and the resulting writing was quite different from my posts here. A lot of stream-of-consciousness, for example, which, although I do a little of it from time to time here, might not always get across the main point or link that I want to share.

Also, Samson’s book is completely different from his blogging style. I’m sure there are many other people who would be able to give such examples. After all, the purposes of a book, essay, short story or blog can be very different.

I suppose for me, the big question in relation to Terry’s article is, what is a writer? What makes a writer different from a blogger? Is a writer a novelist, an author, a journalist, a blogger? Are they interchangeable? Am I blogger on here, but a writer when I’m taking part in NaNoWriMo? If my blog were more literary, would I be a writer who blogs, or still a blogger who writes?

Well, it’s getting late now and I wouldn’t want to reflect too much this late at night! But I would look forward to any responses … (That could be another difference … a blogger should be able to get quicker feedback, presumably? If we have any readers? Whereas a writer might have to wait for longer and look for letters in the feedback pages of newspapers or hold their breath for reviews?)

I’m just back from a lovely dinner celebrating the work of the Transformation Teachers’ Programme so far. It’s always lovely to meet up with other teachers, and to share ideas and enthuse one another. There were a couple of informative talks, by John D’Abbro and Dr Baldev Singh. I was particularly struck by Dr Singh’s talk, partly because he began with a Wordle that I guessed must have come from our own information about the course. (Sorry if I got carried away at that point everyone!!) I have just realised that he got his PhD from a fantastic university: St Andrews. He describes himself as “just a teacher who is having fun“, which I think completely sums up my view of using Web 2.0 and new technologies in the classroom as well – a kindred spirit therefore!

The food was good too, and even though I lost my game of mindball, and could not manage to complete the Wii guitar thing, this was a very enjoyable event. Lovely to see so many people there!

I’m taking part in our school inset again tomorrow. This time we’ll be looking at – or listening to? – podcasts, so I’m doing a bit of research. I’ve found this website which lists some subject specific podcasts. There are also examples of podcasts from a variety of schools. I’m listening to a podcast episode of “The Christian and the Atheist“, two friends discussing the Da Vinci Code. Interesting.

I am in two minds about posting this link here, but as a Teachers’ TV Associate, I have a responsibility to encourage other teachers to use the excellent resources that can be found on the Teachers’ TV website, and I was quite pleased with my students when they were recorded … so here goes. Follow the link to find out more about Online Social Networks.

Well, to be honest, I don’t really know if some things are new or not, but it’s nice to be able to mention the things that are new to me! Go2web20 is “the complete Web 2.0 directory”, and has so many links on the page it’s hard to know where to start. So I’m going to have a browse around and let you know what I think of some of them.

blippr – As with many of the new Web 2.0 sites, this is a beta and you need to apply to get an invite code, so I’ve just signed up and am waiting for the code so I can explore more. However, this looks like an interesting site, where you can compile lists of the books you’ve read or the music you like, add a quick rating and a couple of lines of comment, and browse the recommendations of others in order to discover new media (books, films, TV programmes, music, games …) that you might like. The developers are also working on an application for Facebook.

MyTweetMap – If you like Twitter, and wonder where your twitter friends are twittering from, this could be the application for you. This is a mashup (the first time I have used that term …!) between Twitter and GoogleEarth.

ChitChat – This seems like an interesting idea, worth checking out. There is a video that introduces the site – I couldn’t get the video on the site to play, but they have helpfully included a link to another site that showed it without a problem. It seems to combine VLEs and blogs.

Supercook – Perhaps one for a Food Tech teacher or someone who just wants to get some new ideas for what to cook after a long day at school! You type in your ingredients, and they suggest a recipe …

VisibleBody – I’m not a biologist, so I’m not sure how you would use this, but this site, with a 3D interactive body, looks like it could prove useful in the classroom.

Yacapaca – This site has been recommended to me before, but it’s the first time I’ve got round to looking at it! It’s a bit like a VLE but has shared content as well … as far as I can see.

Wikispaces – This is where to go if you want to get free wikis for you classes or any other group.

MindBite – “The place to learn what others know”. This site has a variety of c. 15 minute “lessons” on all sorts of activities and knowledge. There is a video that shows how to construct a MindBite. You do have to pay for most of the videos though – you get a free one minute preview, then buy the lesson for “as little as $1.69″.

Right. I’ve been browsing for about three hours … that’s ridiculous! I’m supposed to be planning a powerpoint … Hope something there catches your eye. It would be great if anyone who has used or goes on to use any of these sites could leave a comment to say if you’ve found them useful or not … Have fun!