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I have had a number of questions in the past couple of weeks from my Facebook friends who are trying to figure out what in the world I’m saying in some of my Facebook posts. I’ve considered posting a message in FB to explain, but decided to blog about it instead in case any of my vast audience is interested. OK, maybe there are only about 5 of you, but you are important to me. Then I will tweet a link to the new post so you can see how it works.

“Wait…what’s tweet a link” you say? Oops…there I go making up words again! Yes, the title of this post is one of the questions I have received, but here is the one I received from a friend this morning that prompted me to action:

“Can you explain exactly what ‘RT @paulawhite’ is? Is it a way to give credit for what you are posting?”

And the answer is:

I have my Twitter account and my Facebook account tied together, so every time I post to Twitter, the post is automatically re-posted on FB. That way I don’t have to post it in both places to get the info to my different networks of friends. So what I’m really using is Twitter shorthand.

Since users only have 140 characters to post a message in Twitter, shorthand is very important. When you want to send a message to another Twitter user’s attention, or to give them credit when you share something you got from them with your own network, you put the @ before their username. On Twitter, each post is called a “tweet”. To send someone else’s tweet out to your followers is called a “retweet”, shortened to RT.

So “RT @paulawhite” means “retweet from user paulawhite”, or “I got this great information from a tweet by Paula White, and I want to share it with my friends, too”, leaving me onlly 39 characters to send her message…not nearly enough.

Why would I want to send the tweet if Paula already did? See…only the people who follow Paula on Twitter get her message. Some of the people who follow me also follow Paula, but not all of them. I think her message is worth passing along, so I will retweet to my Twitter followers and Facebook friends, and some of them may decide to do the same with their followers and friends.

Thus, as my friend David Jakes would say…”the network wins again!” Translated to Tweetspeak: RT @djakes “The network wins again!”

OK, I admit it…I’m not sure Tweetspeak is a word.

David Warlick is working to begin each presentation with something he has learned in the last 24 hours, because above being a teacher, he is a learner.  We are struggling to redefine teaching.  The 21st century teacher is a master learner.

This presentation has handouts at http://davidwarlick.com/handouts

David is telling us how his personal learning network started in 2004.  He realized after reading a couple of other blogs that a blog was not effective as a one way conversation.  He began reading blogs based on comments from other people’s blogs.  Then became aware that this had become his personal learning network (George Siemens, “Connectivism”).

“What is the difference between a social network and social networking?”

David set up a wiki that asked this question, then used the responses to build the presentation

Arturo Guajardo, Austin ISD

Presentation will be posted at http://www.eduese.com

Title comes from the belief that technology can transform ESL instruction.  Arturo works closely with teachers who teach ESL students.  Goal is to present tools for ESL teachers.  Based on research on Common Principles & Strategies for ESL Instruction.

Background knowledge, Academic Language, Sense of Self are the three ESL strategies that he believes have the most connection to ESL instruction.

Background Knowledge:  ELLs will learn new content and language when it is built on what they already know.

LaDonna Conner and Amy Bramhall-Carrolton-Farmers Branch ISD

Presentation will be posted at http://www.beyond4walls.org

Podcasting and iPods int he ESL/Bilingual classroom

How I Learned English:  55 Accomplished Latinos Recall Lessons in Language and Life (National Geographic Books)

Teacher in CFBISD says, “When I tell them it’s going to be podcast, they practice more than when I have them say it to me.”

20 point difference in test scores in one class.

Two students had failed every benchmark in math.  Gave each student a video iPod frontloaded with Unitedstreaming videos as well as Photostory with the math SEs…both passed TAKS the following year, and one student was 2 points from commended.  Was not the only intervention, but it made a difference. 

Sheryl first commented on how much technology has changed even in the year since she was here at Tech Forum SW 07.

She used the Cisco clip “Welcome to the Human Network” as the theme for the keynote.  “We drag and drop people wherever they want to go’.

Are we ready for 21st century learning?  We are 8 years into it.  She is the 3rd year of a Microsoft Partners In Learning grant in Alabama.  Sheryl picked 10 of their best schools…went looking for “where they are” getting ready to begin the 4th year of the grant.  She found the teacher excited and using the technology.  The kids, not so much…they were still watching, not participating.

Sheryl talked to the kids, and asked these 2 questions:

• What teacher stood out to you, and what was the lesson you walked away knowing you had really learned?
  • Teachers with passion
  • Teachers with competency
  • Teachers who allowed students personal choice.
  • Teachers who care.
• What is the worst teacher, lesson, experience in your learning?
  • Teachers who give nothing but notes
  • Quotes to Sheryl from students:
    • “I’m a teenager…I don’t like to read…if you give me 20 pages of notes, I’m going to skim it, plug in the words, not learn it.”
    • “I want lessons with purpose so I can retain it.”
    • From a 4th grader: “You know the word teacher, it has the word ‘teach’ in it”.

Participatory Culture-Henry Jenkins

1. Relatively low barriers for engagement
2. Strong support for sharing creations with others
3. Informal mentorship
4. Members believe their contributions matter.
5. Care about others’ opinions of self & work.

2 years ago…were kids producers of content?

Clay Shirky…Here Comes Everybody: Four stages to mastering the connected world:

• sharing,
• cooperating,
• collaborating, and
• collective action.

The magic happens when the kids collaborate.  Students publish their work and even share with other groups, but what happens when someone from around the world comments on their work?  We have then moved from cooperation to collaboration.

Trend 1-Social and intellectual capital are the new economic values in the world economy.

If we are going to prepare kids for their “right now”, we must make these shifts.  Are we teaching kids to be good digital citizens–to use the tools they are already using responsibly?

Moving from mandated accountability to mutual accountability:

“By the year 2011 80% of all Fortune 500 companies will be using immersive worlds” –Gartner Vice President Jackie Fenn

“Learning to be creates passion.” –Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

“Schools are only one node on the network of learning.” –Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach

When we were in school, learning stopped an started at the schoolhouse door…today, learning can take place any place and anywhere.  We have done a great job of preparing kids for the present…the rules have not been created yet for preparing them for the future.

Sheryl shared the following example of true collective action:

Laura Stockman-share, connect, collaborate, collective action.  Laura was a 10 year old who created a blog when her grandfather died called 25 days to make a difference.  She wanted to do and record 25 days of good deeds.     It became an international project, and is still ongoing, almost 2 years later.  WOW!!!!!

Types of communities:

• place
• memory
• interest or passion

Personal Learning Networks

Community–in and out of the classroom

Are you “clickable”-Are your students?

Moving from classroom metaphor to community metaphor.

“They come to you with a chip in their head anyway!”  Tony Wagner-The Global Achievement

Learning Ecology:  http:/www.elearnspace.org/Articles/google_whitepaper.pdf

The tools are not the point…becoming a participatory culture using the tools is the point.

In the I knew this, but it really hit me when she said it department:

“We are the last generation of teachers who have the choice whether or not to embrace technology.”

Lance is a dynamic speaker, and so excited about what he is doing with his students, that you can’t help catching his excitement! Many of the tools he discussed I was already aware of…this is not intended as a negative comment, because there were many people in the audience for whom they were new, so it was great that he talked about them.

Tools discussed:
GCast, Skype, iChatAV, Marratech

More on Marratech–purchased 6 months ago by Google, so could really take off. Client is free. Ability for h.264; Can connect to h.323 units, but needs the server-side software.

He is looking for collaborative partners for classroom VC opportunities.

Lance quote: “When you get the vision of what you want, don’t limit yourself to technology grants. ” They used a historical building grant to gut and remodel their school.

Alan started with a fun story:

In 1990, 28% of students who had graduated from college lived with their parents
Last reports show that 69% of students who had graduated from college now live with their parents
Since most of these kids are the offspring of Baby Boomers, this leads to the conclusion that should be called “Boomerangs”.

Alan was at the school claiming to be the #1 school in the country in getting their students into Ivy League schools. He asked to meet with the top 25 of these students. Here is the discussion:

Question: “Do you ever ask yourself what just happened…what was just taught…in your classroom?”

Answer: “Yes, in every class with every teacher.”

Question: “Do you ask for extra help?”

Answer: “No.”

Question: “What do you do?”

Answer: “We work together on the weekend, figure out what each one knows, and helps each other catch up.”

Educators must learn that kids are social by nature.

Lots of kids are walking out of our classrooms every day needing extra help. We HAVE to pay attention to the social way they learn. We must teach children to have a global voice…there is authentic audience around the world.

When students lived on farms and helped their parents on farms, they all had jobs. They were contributing to their community. Psychologically, there is a need to contribute to community. Students need to have “jobs” again, and Alan suggests the following:

Seven jobs for kids (keep in mind, not every child does every job):1. Curriculum review team: students produce content that benefits all and creates a review for all

2. Tutorial design team: Nothing better than kids creating help for other kids.
Alan showed a screencast of “Bob and Paul”, 12 year olds who create tutorials
Suggestion: Every kid on this tutorial design team creates a DVD, mp3, or podcast for other students

3. Official Scribe: have students work together to make meaning of their class work.
“We do not have a culture that values the success of the group over the work of the individual.”
Suggestion: Google Docs allows students from anywhere to revise docs/presentations. Teacher can view revisions and see which students contributed, the flow of the revisions, and how learning takes place.
Perspective…most of our resources are from the American point of view. Example…read about the American Revolution from the British point of view…search “host: ac.uk (academic in Britain) ‘General Gage’” (ac is academic content, uk is British country code)

4. Global communication team:
Suggestions: Find 3 schools in England who are studying the American Revolution who will debate us; Record and create a podcast for iTunes and the teacher’s blog site

Alan’s four rules for designing an assignment:

• authentic audience
• archive (iTunes, blog, etc.) because you want people to comment for a very long time (past the grade).
• assessment is moved across the web…teams of teachers across the web assessing each other’s classes.
• collaborate whenever possible…who “on the planet” can add value to your assignment (local police, other classes across the world, grandmother network, etc.)

5. Official researcher: answer questions by going to the web, continuously, all class long. All resources go into the class search engine.

6. Legacy team: these students do whatever it takes to bring added value to the lesson

7. Resource Builder: this job is for the whole class, as well as other teachers, classes, etc.
Suggestion: Google custom search: google.com–>more–>even more. 100 people can build a search engine together, anywhere in the world! Contribute all the resources they find to one search engine. The person who started it can see exactly who contributed.

This year the Region 16 ESC Instructional Technology team (Debbie, Jennifer, and Heather) along with Mindy, our Career and Technology consultant who attended with us this year, created a wiki to record our experiences at the 2008 TCEA conference. Each of us attended separate sessions and updated our own individual pages on the wiki. Rather than double-post, here is a link to the wiki: http://esc16weblearning5.pbwiki.com/.

My daughter came home from school saying her homework was to visit a website called freerice.com.
I watched as she did, and I was very impressed with this site.

Participants are given a vocabulary word with four possible definitions. If they click on the correct definition, they have just donated 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.

Very cool, and rather addictive, too! Check it out!