Over the course of the last few months, we have begun our initiative to create better digital citizens in our schools and community.  This has led me to giving lots of talks to students as well as parents and one of the illustrations I find myself using over and over again is that of driving and comparing student participation in the digital space to that of someone underage driving a car.  So needless to say when this video by billgx came down the pipe (via Twitter I believe) I was all over it!  It's simple, short and worth 1000's of words.  I am going to add this to our growing list of videos on the topic of digital citizenship and let it do the talking!  Another fine example of content creation and sharing at its best.  What do you think about it?

I work in a school district that realizes teaching digital citizenship is of the utmost importance and wants to do more to create a community of wise, educated digital citizens.  So what we have decided to do is launch a campaign aimed at educating our faculty, students and our community in this area of digital citizenship.  This effort is still in its infancy but we are planning on kicking off the community involvement component this fall by offering "town hall" style meetings where we will be bringing in various experts to share their thoughts on topics such as internet and cell phone safety, legal consequences of inappropriate digital behaviors, as well as cyberbullying and social networking.  We have even gotten sponsors to offer door prizes (3 netbooks and an Xbox 360) as a way to encourage attendance.  Our hope is that we can share ideas and information that will encourage parents and others in our community to take a serious look at their own digital behavior while empowering them with the resources they need to play an active role in teaching their children how to lay down positive digital footprints and become good digital citizens.  We find that many parents want to be leaders for their children in the digital space but feel unprepared, so we are aiming to change that.  We believe by giving them some practical tips and info, as well as sharing with them a common vocabulary that their children will be hearing on a frequent basis in their classrooms, parents will feel empowered to get involved in digital lives of their kids and hopefully make a positive impact on their future.  We created a "teaser" video seen here that will be shown at all the school registration/open house events as well as school websites in hopes of raising an interest and encouraging parents to attend one of the meetings.  What do you think?  Have you tried implemented something similar in your district?  If so, share a link or your thoughts in the comments.

WallWisher is great web2 tool for the classroom. It's SUPER EASY, FREE, there's no sign-in to post/create and the ways to use it are vast! It's a sharable, embeddable bulletin board that you can add sticky notes to along w/images, videos & audio. By adding Vocaroo to the mix, you get a talking bulletin board! Vocaroo is another VERY EASY tool to use that allows anyone to record audio right onto the Vocaroo site and then it gives you a URL & embed code for your recording-and it only takes 3 clicks and there's no sign-in! All you need is a microphone. So how does it work with WallWisher? Well, after recording, you copy the url and paste it into the box at the bottom of your sticky note-giving your sticky a voice! How cool is that?! If you want to learn more about Vocaroo, check out @teachakidd 's blog post. But just go to the site and try it once...it's too easy! For some great ideas on how to use WallWisher, check out 16 Interesting Ways to Use WallWisher in the Classroom by @tombarrett.

Here's an example-this is a wall from one of my 3rd grade teachers. She created it for her students to post to as they begin their study of famous African-Americans. With her permission, I tweeted out the link and asked for others to post. Now her students are sharing outside the walls of their classroom!

-So here are some steps-

1. Go to this wall I created and check it out! Try posting something-simply doube-click on the page, type in your name and that's it! Click my sticky to see how Vocaroo actually works when used in a post.

2. Go set up an account at WallWisher-use your Google ID to sign in if you have one.
3. Make a Wall to use with your class
4. Go to Vocaroo and record instructions for students on how to use the wall.
5. Paste the URL for the recording into a Sticky on your wall.
6. Share your wall via email, embed it on your wiki/blog/website, or tweet it and see if others will post!

If you do create a wall, share the link to it in the comments so others can see what you are doing, get ideas and even leave a note!

Here's what a Vocaroo Recording looks like when you embed it:

(This post was written 5/1/09 but is just now being published)

As a result of decisions made by the leaders in my district, today has been a day of great change in my life and I now find my professional career taking a turn in a direction that was unforeseen just few months ago, but welcomed. Let me preface this whole reflection by stating that this change isn’t a bad thing. It’s simply a change due to uncontrollable circumstances in our struggling economy and I am grappling with what this means for me as an educator.

So I found out today that I will no longer be a technology coach for 2 of the 3 middle schools in our district. This is a job I have been lucky enough to do for the past 2 years, something I have grown to love and developed a sincere passion for! Part of me is sad, part of me is bitter and part of me is excited about the change on the horizon. I am full of mixed emotions to say the least. I know, you are thinking ‘enough already…suck it up…these are tough times and you are one of thousands losing their jobs so stop being so selfish.’ Yes, I am losing my job but thankfully I am able to slide right into another position (7th grade social studies-civics/geography) in the same district without missing a beat. Also, I am sensitive enough to realize that unfortunately this isn’t the case for many people suffering lay-offs in our “jacked-up” economy. So please know that I am not writing to complain or blame. I am grateful!

Let me start by saying that I have never lost a job. And I have had my share of jobs…from digging holes and laying sod, surveying houses, loading/blasting thousands of pounds of high-explosives in holes in a quarry, delivering pizzas for Domino’s to bagging groceries at the local supermarket. During all my years of employment, I have never been asked to leave a job…until today. No, it wasn’t a total surprise. Rumors have been floating around for a few months and I had somewhat prepared for the possibility of being cut. In fact, I already my eye on a classroom position just in case I got this news. But it still doesn’t make the pill any easier to swallow now that the news is “official.” Am I sad because I won’t be doing what I love anymore? Yes, for many selfish reasons. But I am really sad because we as a school district have made a huge investment in providing the tools, infrastructure AND SUPPORT to our teachers so they can effectively grow as professionals and successfully meet the needs of their students in our changing world and stay true to our vision. We have made it our goal as a district to be a leader among leaders and truly create life-long learners. Our teachers across the district, K-12, ALL have an amazing set of tech tools in their classrooms (projectors, doc cameras, student-response systems, audio systems, tablet pc’s, digital slates, etc.). But we haven’t just dumped the tools on them and left them to figure it out. Everyone knows that doesn’t lead to success. We wisely beefed up our technology coaching staff and have, for the past 2 years, provided intensive support to help ensure that our teachers could effectively use the tools to change what they do and provide their students with the experiences, skills and opportunities they need and demand to find success in this “flattening world,” as Friedman says. Well, our plan has been overwhelmingly successful (at least in my opinion)! We have lots of teachers who are flying high and the ball is definitely rolling, but there is still so much work to be done.

However, in this struggling economy budgets are cut and tough calls have to be made, like the one that prompted this whole post. I, along with 3 other tech coaches, have been reassigned, making our district’s tech coaching staff go from 10 to 6 serving 17 schools. But please don’t misunderstand me…I realize some districts have no tech coaches and that we are extremely lucky to be able to retain 6 of the 10 positions. And as I said above, I am grateful to have a job during these uncertain times and work in system that isn’t letting these tough times change the vision. But even with 10 coaches, providing adequate support for all the teachers was always a challenge, so with 6 it’s going to be even tougher and I am afraid we will suffer in certain areas where we were starting to see growth. Hopefully this is only temporary but there will be negative consequences. One of my administrators used this analogy and I like it.

“We have been driving a race car wide-open for the past 2 years, but now with these changes, we need to simply see if we can keep gas in the car a keep it on the road.”

After being in that car for some time and maybe even pressing the gas to the floor a time or two, I know that in order for growth to occur…for this change to happen within our schools, which I believe we all see as an imperative step towards the future success of our nation, support has to be there! There are numerous blog posts, journal articles, books as well as countless students and teachers to back this up this claim. So that’s why I am sad. For 2 years I got to be a supporting part of this change, of something much bigger than me and one classroom. I witnessed professionals developing, I watched students engage that had never engaged before, I saw minds opened to new ideas…I saw change with my very own eyes. And to be a small part of that, experiencing it daily and knowing that it can and does happen is what has driven me…it’s my passion and it’s what I have grown to love! I would be lying if I didn’t say that it’s going to be very tough to change gears as I begin to shift my focus back to the classroom. But as I do begin to look towards next year as classroom teacher again, I must look back and recognize that I got 2 years of the best professional development possible and enter into this new phase with an amazing network of professionals surrounding me that won’t allow me do anything but succeed! That’s the power of the PLN and I love it! Now the challenge becomes translating it all into creating a 7th social studies classroom where kids will come to be challenged, feel valued and learn how to contribute to something much larger than themselves! One door closes and another is opened…but regardless, I am a teacher and opening lids is my job! And do you really think the teachers will stop emailing me when they want to try something new or need to know how to set up a VoiceThread account? Yeah right…

I struggle with how and when is best to teach someone new stuff. I can teach someone the same thing 2 or 3 times and if I offered to do it a 4th time, they may take me up on it. When does it become enough? I am not saying there's anything wrong with the person OR with what's being taught. I think it all revolves around the willingness to change and the openness to new things on an individual basis. I have worked with my 8 year old on blogging...I set him up a blog, showed him how it works, how to get pics off of his digital camera and helped him post a few things AND STILL he could really care less about blogging. It just isn't important to him at this point in his life. Yes, I see the benefits of starting him young and teaching him the power of writing for an audiance, creating a positive digital footprint, etc. But he just doesn't get it because HE doesn't want to get it or he doesn't see the importance of it. So should I bother? Should I teach him something that he doesn't see as important for his life? OR, should I work hard to teach him the "why" in hopes that he will begin to the see the importance and then take on the challenge of learning something new for himself, making a personal connection to whatever that may be so that it has meaning to him and not just me? I am pretty sure the latter is the better choice. Well, I KNOW the latter is the better method but I often find that I teach something and try planting seeds in soil that isn't ready. All that to say I think there is something to be learned from nature, which is lots of cultivation paired with critical timing is a necessity for proper growth to occur. Trying to facilitate growth when the conditions are not right can lead to discouragement. But being there when all things are aligned is a pretty amazing thing to witness and knowing you are an active part of that is truly indescribable. It's why I teach.

Here's a blog post which I wrote a while back and intended to use as my first post for my new blog but obviously forgot about. Well, when Liz Davis asked a on Twitter if anyone had a post telling about PLN's, I remembered that this was sitting lonely on my desktop just waiting to be published or trashed. Well, here it is, so read on if you want to know my feelings about PLN's. And as it was orginally titled, a simple question is what motivated me to finally get my lazy butt in gear and create a blog so I can share and not just be a "lurking" consumer.

"Twitterpoll Question from @courosa leads to my first blog post"

So the question posed by Dr. Couros was “what is a PLN?” Seemed like a pretty simple, straightforward question, right? But then again, if it had a simple answer I don’t think Dr. Couros would need to ask his PLN for their ideas on the topic. Anyway, I decided to weigh in on this discussion and devoted some thought to this question. I have a PLN but really haven’t tried to describe it. I have talked about PLN’s with the teachers at my 2 middle schools but I really haven’t defined it in any certain terms…much less in 140 characters (actually, 132 characters by the time I added in the @courosa to respond on Twitter). So I distilled out what I thought was a somewhat thoughtful response and tweeted it. Well, just like any good steward of Twitter, Dr. Couros responded to my answer. But his response was another question! Isn’t that what good teachers do...use good questioning techniques to get students thinking on higher levels? Of course it is. And he must be a good teacher because his question led me to closely examine this definition of what a PLN really is…to discover what it means to me personally. It’s not that defining a PLN has been a pressing issue for me or something that I have lost sleep over. It’s the fact that I entered into a conversation, shared my thoughts and then the conversation didn’t just end. It was been furthered by his response and question…a true conversation. Now I am engaged and the ball’s in my court! I could very easily leave it alone and go read some blogs or tweets, but then I would be cheating myself out of this moment of discovery. This conversation has become a learning opportunity for me, my chance to create meaning and gain a better understanding for myself…a meaning and understanding that I can then share with my PLN. And then maybe I can further this conversation or enter into a new one, but the difference will be that I have something NEW to bring to the community because of my personal discovery. Isn’t that our goal for our students…for them to authentically engage in the learning process so as to create/discover meaning that is useful to them personally? Isn’t that what a PLN is all about…To act as a source AND catalyst for this sort of thought-provoking conversation and authentic experience mentioned above that leads us to a point where are required to engage, to reflect, and ultimately to contribute instead of just consuming? I don’t know if I defined a PLN or could explain it in 140 characters, but my PLN has been and will continue to be a major part of my learning experience. It’s a must is we really want to be life-long learners in the 21st Century.

Click to read Dr. Couros' thoughtful post about PLN's and to see all the responses he received from Twitter folks.

A cheesy graphic I made which may be more confusing than anything else!

One of the hottest 2.0 tools being used at my schools right now is Glogster EDU (click to visit Glogster EDU and also check out my getting started handout here) In case you are wondering about "glogster," it's a digital poster-making tool and is loved by students AND teachers as a way to present information. It's flashy, easy to use and gives students the ability to really personalize their content and make something that is unique and easy to share with their peers, parents and teachers. And just to share, I learned about Glogster from @cbrannon who is an awesome science teacher at my school. Oh the power of sharing...

So how do I teach more teachers and students how to use it? I don't...they do! You see, I spent time during a TechIn20 Session on Glogster helping a few curious folks get started with the tool. Well, over the past few weeks one of those curious 6th grade science teachers started using glogster with her students, saw the value of it and decided to help another 6th grade science teacher's class get started with it (our 6th grade is made up of 3 teams). So basically, here's what happened...One science teacher started using Glogster, taught her kids how to "glog" and used it as part of a unit in her class. After her kids proved to be proficient "gloggers," she sent them to the science class on another team (where the kids & teachers were unfamiliar w/Glogster) and they taught those kids as well as that science teacher how to "glog." That teacher (the one who learned from the students, not me) then sent her students to the 3rd team and helped them learn how to "glog." NOW that science teacher is preparing her students to teach the math teacher nextdoor how to "glog." As my boss would say, that's a great example of "force multiplication." I taught one who taught another who taught another...and you get the picture. If you don't, then check out the graphic below.

Now all 6th grade 3 teams at one of my schools have a new, fun tool in their toolbox that they can readily use! That's a great success and I applaud my awesome teachers for spreading their passion for this tool and opening up to allow the students to teach them something. Afterall, a teacher must be a life long learner, right? And what better way than learning from their students is there for a teacher to demonstrate that teachers are learners too? Also, I am finding that Glogster is a great tool for getting teachers to test the 2.0 waters and see that it's not all sharks and jellyfish! Now I just need to get this model going in all curricula across 6th, 7th and 8th grades at both of my schools. Just seeing the results from this experiment excites me and shows me the the power of teachers and students sharing as equals in what they know, what they want to learn and what they can accomplish! All of this because someone shared...

To see some of Mr. Brannon's student Glogs on Body Systems, visit his wiki here.