K12 Learning 2.0

Another powerful Web 2.0 tool still in its infancy that has powerful implications for the K-12 educational environment….WOW!!  Easy to navigate, comprehensive in scope, incorporating all forms of media – what’s not to like.  It was very easy to get “lost” in this tool with hours disappearing as you follow links, read about great classroom teaching ideas as well as current issues and practices (e.g. at what grade level are students allowed to use laptops?….interesting to read.  Our district is exploring the nettop – small laptop with Internet connection for our K students).

Exploring both the Classroom 2.0 Ning as well as Ning in Education was enlightening.  Both were similar in format so it was very easy to explore and no great learning curve after I had visited the first.  I love the Forum part of each – talking to educators who are concerned about the same topics I am and offering great classroom teaching ideas as well as discussing current issues as well as offering help with tools that I’ve recently been introduced to, i.e. Twitter (still wrapping my head around it).  I found so many ideas that experienced teachers had used to teach their students (e.g. Visual Vocabulary) – it was like attending a conference and coming back so energized and creative and that “can’t wait to get back to the classroom to try that” feeling.  What a resource to have available – knowing I could visit anytime (even in my pajamas and no travelling costs for my school district) and bring that excitement to my classroom daily.

Being a media specialist – I love organization.  These sites have that.  Media specialists want the materials they own to be used easily and frequently by their patrons – trying to provide multiple ways to access the material.  Both sites do this very effectively….allowing you to search by tool, subject and area of interest.  Having Groups is also highly effective allowing me to focus on my one area of interest.  Why was I not surprised that Joyce V has a ning for media specialists/librarians??? (Does she ever sleep?)  Her TeacherLibrarian Ning provides quality information including current issues/topics, teaching ideas as well as thought-provoking discussions that definitely make you think!!!

I definitely can visualize nings being used for my own professional development needs as well as providing wonderful classroom resources on any topic/standard.  I didn’t explore (ran out of time) any personal interests or hobbies……that’s on my  “To Do” list. And that’s one of the recurring concerns I encountered – time!  Every tool has potential….but I need to focus on one or two then add others after I feel like I’ve effectively integrated that tool.  Everyone’s life is busy with other reponsibilities and interests and trying to balance all those with professional interests and growth can get overwhelming sometimes.

As with many of the tools we explored, utiling nings in the K-12 environment requires some guidelines for student use.  This can be a slow process that involves multiple departments, sometimes the Board of Education.  I feel I’m in a fairly progressive county that is good-sized and that we normally can accomplish these types of tasks effectively.  But with many of the Web 2.0 tools it also requires educating individuals on their potential use and purpose (which is the approach we’ve used in our district). 

I’ve liked the experience of nings – actually, we had one at the last Georgia Media Conference last October.  My first impression would be utilizing them for my own professional development and learning.

Joyce’s NeverEndingSearch has done it again………with a very provacative post that began on Twitter by some tech gurus (Karl Fisch plus others)…..”What’s the point of having a media specialist if they aren’t specialists in the media forms of the day? “

A topic that is specific to media specialists (they’ve got a job they didn’t sign up for 20 years ago?  Isn’t it the responsibility of all professionals to stay current? plus much more…..) but also can apply to the classroom teacher too.  Joyce honestly admits it hurts to be so publicly discussed and also honestly states there are media personnel who need to go. 

Our world has changed..and these topics are being discussed without the media specialist present – if he or she is not part of the “social” network that has become our world.  What to do? 

I’m still digesting the post and comments……I know in our district we’re providing professional development and an incentive program (MediA21) to assist the school media specialist as a professional…my plan is to provide Joyce’s post and comments to the district media specialist as part of their “summer reading” and then incorporate this topic as part of our district media meetings next year.

Pageflakes – what a great description of this tool!  It was fascinating to search all the different topics within Pageflakes for pagecasts that were already created.  I know you indicated the search feature wasn’t the best but I was able to access a variety of topics of interest fairly easily.  The variety of topics, the ability to customize/personalize your own page, the current-ness of the content you can provide is all very appealing.

I created a Pageflakes page on Copyright.  It helped tremendously to have the template available to see the variety of choices appropriate for the K-12 environment.  I added several RSS feeds – U S Copyright Office included – as well as a podcast link too besides bookmarks I already had.  Chose my own theme and moved my “pieces” around…I haven’t made it public yet – it’s still a work in progress.  Have some other materials I’m evaluating before I consider adding to my page.  I want to use it for the Information Literacy class I teach – we begin another session in early June – so my plan is to have it ready for that….I’ll add it to my training page on Copyright.

My uses of Pageflakes will be more for the professional learning environment – using it to provide resources to class participants or fellow media specialists on a variety of topics.  I can see a  media specialist using Pageflakes as a learning tool for students as well as a “hook” for the school’s media center page.  I would include on my school media center page photos of activities in the media center, Delicious bookmarks, a place for surveys (e’g. What new magazines should the media center acquire for 2009), feeds to area and national newspapers, calendar of library events and latest print award winners to name a few.

As a teaching tool for students, I would collaborate with classroom teachers on their standards-based assignments as well as current topics of interest (e.g. Environmental Science, 2008 Election, Diseases, Swine Flu/Peanut Butter) and provide RSS feeds, podcasts, links to authorative journals as well as bookmarks, etc. on Pageflakes.

I found creating a page very easy…….the choices you can add are unbelievable……for me, I would have to do a storyboard of the possible “choices” I’d want to include on my page on my particular topic before I would actually create the page………..I’d want to be sure I had the content I wanted and needed included on the page…and really decide do I need Post-it Notes, Word Pad, Calendar, etc.