Tom’s Work

This is the first public announcement of a new project. Targeting promotion of intrinsic motivation and critical thinking, MyPlace uses Web 2.0 technologies to enrich personal learning.

(Okay, so that last paragraph and image were a quick post made in the minutes before a presentation in Melbourne, Victoria. Thanks to the colleague who provided the nudge after noting the long-lingering New Year’s Eve posting.)

MyPlace is a multidisciplinary, multi-age project that attempts to provide a Real, Rich and Relevant learning environment for students.  Using the latest social-networking Web tools, the project invites students to find personal meaning in an exploration of what the world might look like for them.  Climate change, global economics, shifting demographics and geo-political tensions virtually guarantee that the world of our students’ early adulthood will be anything but predictable.

You are invited to explore the MyPlace site.  Contact tom at ozline dot com if you are interested in participating.  A Users’/Teachers’ guide blog also supports the site.

You might have noticed that Google has decided to get involved in education. A recent AP article describes the early steps of packaging the “Google Suite” with tutorials and examples for teachers. These are solid guides to help use Docs, Spreadsheets, Google Earth, Maps, etc. in the classroom. What the articles don’t mention is that Google has enlisted WestEd and Chris Walsh to develop The Infinite Thinking Machine, a video/blog with eight regular contributors. I have the pleasure of being one of these folks. We all make a post / week on whatever catches our fancy. There is no bias toward Google in the posts as our challenge is to contribute ideas around educationally sound integration of technology. Each week, Chris also hosts a video that energetically highlights other good teaching and learning ideas.

• Check out WordPress for the best Weblog.
• Make use of open source software (like elgg, drupal, mediawiki, scuttle).
• A good php host (like Site Ground) includes cpanel and Fantastico + installs the above for you.
• Download FireFox, then add cool extensions like Stumble Upon and FireFTP.
• Make sure you claim your blog with a Technorati Profile

Welcome to my friends in the Diocese of Broken Bay. Nice to get together again.

Here’s a handout for the day to download

Here’s a handout for setting up a WordPress blog
Activities

• Explore the 2nd10 Steps (Hotlists > WebQuests & all in between)
• WebQuest Exploring Web 2.0 technologies
• Broken Bay Big Ideas Project

Readings

• The 2nd10 Manifesto – add to the Wiki page?
• Why ClassAct Portals? – an overview with access to open source software
• CEQALL Overview & Profiles, (Word .doc download) by Tom March
• E-learning 2.0, by Stephen Downes,
• The Hive – Atlantic Monthly article about Wikipedia
• Know it All – New Yorker Magazine article about Wikipedia
• The Wisdom of Crowds – Wikipedia entry, Comments from a blog
• Dion Hinchcliffe’s Web 2.0 Blog

Hello. Welcome. Below are some Web links and a few ideas for activities. Click on the ones that interest you. Chat with a friend about what you see and think.

1. Blue Poles is the most famous painting at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. Look at a picture of it. Then go to Jackson Pollock.org and try clicking around. Discuss one of these questions: “How come my creation is disposable and Pollock’s are worth tens of millions?” or “What is the point of ‘action painting’?”

2. Pick a topic you’re interested in (really!) and then see what each of the three online encyclopedia have to say about it: Encyclopedia Britannica, Wikipedia, and the Simple English Wikipedia. Could you contribute new information in the last one? Write out your contribution in the Task below.
3. What does it mean by “The World is Flat” (see the BBC article), then see about the Miniature Earth. What does either of these sites make you think about your place in the world?

4. Take this online quiz about the Internet and see how many right answers you get.

5. Write a message in SMS speak or translate this famous document:

dad@hvn,
urspshl.
we want wot u want
&urth2b like hvn
giv us food Give us food
&4giv r sins
lyk we 4giv uvaz.
don’t test us!
save us!
bcos we kno ur boss
ur tuf
&ur cool 4 eva!
ok?

Task – Thanks for trying out these links and questions. Please write me a two page letter about things you saw or thought about from this activity. Include your ideas or feelings from the presentation and the response from one of the questions above. Only write the letter in binary code if you send it digitally! Optional extra – in your lesson book, draw a cool picture that shows you in ten years time with all the gadgets pointed to with arrows and explained (see an example).

In preparing for a workshop today, I decided to engage the educators in a ClassAct Portal WebQuest on Leveraging the Latest in Learning Technologies. In other words, we’ll get folks to explore Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, RSS, AJAX and Virality and then challenge them to create a Real, Rich and Relevant learning site. I made it in about 3 hours (FYI because people always ask) using Web-and-Flow. Give it a spin and let me know what you think.

Today and tomorrow will be spent with my good friends in the Broken Bay Diocese. Over the years , Paul Davis and Paul Meldrum have been good mates in supporting teachers in smart uses of Information and Communications Technologies. They have posted a Blog called Teachers Sharing with Teachers that capture the events of the ICLT Conference in Mingara, New South Wales.

A quick note about a Webcast I’ll participate in on Wednesday morning at NECC. Kidz Online has set up a panel with Will Richardson, Tim Wilson and myself to talk about “Web 2.0.” The realtime session is 9:30 AM Pacific time, but I’m pretty sure you can access it later.  I don’t fancy any of us will get much time to discuss things we could all chat about for hours, but I’ll be interested to see what new things Will and Tim have to share.  I hope I can advocate for quality use of blogs, wikis, podcasts, etc. over simple use.  I suspect I’ll campaign for a ClassAct Portal approach to significant use of powerful technologies as I did in the Why ClassAct Portals? article.