The Will Richardson Project: From MySpace to SchoolSpace

For my professional development goals as an instructional specialist and future school administrator, I am reading a few articles by Will Richardson and posting my thoughts here. Feel free to join the conversation in the comments. From MySpace to SchoolSpace: teaching kids the social networking skills they need. District Administration - September 1, 2007

Summary: Seattle Public Schools have been using their own network to help students and teachers utilize the many benefits of social networking within a safe, controlled environment. Besides teaching students responsible and safe networking skills, the tool has allowed teachers to consider different pedagogies that are more student-centered and inquiry-based.

What I Think: I am a huge advocate for allowing social networks in schools. Sure, some will point to the risks, but that's just a bigger reason for why they should be addressed in schools. The best way to protect students from harm is to facilitate that learning. Why not provide a safe space for them to explore the virtues of social networking?

How does this help me with my work? The Seattle project is a great example of how a school district has adopted social networks to work for their purpose of educating their students. I can point to this example as a success story. Schools wouldn't have to create their own networks. They could utilize MySpace, Facebook, or Twitter as well as create their own networks on Moodle or Ning.

L3rn

The Will Richardson Project: Administrators Who Blog

For my professional development goals as an instructional specialist and future school administrator, I am reading a few articles by Will Richardson and posting my thoughts here. Feel free to join the conversation in the comments. Administrators who blog: give administrators in your district online voices. District Administration - April 1, 2007

Summary: School administrators, particularly building principals, are faced with a growing number of issues. Blogging can help them process these issues and open their thinking to multiple perspectives. An audience of other administrators as well as students, teachers, and the community can help an administrator see solutions not normally found on one's own. Additionally, blogging can add to an aura of transparency not often found in schools. Despite these benefits and the growing use of blogs, too few administrators are utilizing this tool.

What I Think: As I work in various schools, it worries me that so many administrators are not participating in the learning process aside from running their respective buildings. Students and teachers are blogging, opening their discussions to outside perspectives. Principals should be doing the same.

I understand why this happens. Principals are bombarded with issues concerning building maintenance, personnel, curriculum, etc. Who has time for blogging with so many issues requiring their attention? That is specifically why they should blog. Draw from other administrators' experiences or consider the perspectives of staff, students, and families.

How does this help me with my work? This fits in with my work and professional development in two ways. First, I am always looking for angles in selling administration on the educational benefits of technology and the Internet. Second, my studies in earning an administrative certification fits with this sort of topic well. This idea of administrators blogging bridges my current work with my future work seamlessly.

The Will Richardson Project: Building a Web Presence

For my professional development goals as an instructional specialist and future school administrator, I am reading a few articles by Will Richardson and posting my thoughts here. Feel free to join the conversation in the comments. Building a Web presence: Weblogs are becoming essential in school districts across the country. District Administration - May 1, 2007

Summary: Schools, like almost any organization or enterprise these days, have to play an active role in their online presence. The best and most useful way to do this is to provide opportunities for students and teachers to write blogs, post videos, or record podcasts to be shared over the Internet. Schools need to make these sorts of networks accessible as well as teach students how to best utilize Web 2.0 tools in order to improve their web presence.
(Link to Example Class Blog)


What I Think: I am a big fan of this idea. Schools feel so helpless with all the bad press they receive. Google your local elementary and you're just as likely to come up with a site for parents to rate your school as you are to find the school's official web page. I say beat them to the punch. Encourage students and teachers to publish all over the place. Teach students the best ways to communicate, collaborate, and advocate for themselves and their educations online.


How does this help me with my work? I work with a lot of teachers who are very concerned with perceived risks and dangers associated with Web 2.0. On top of that, their administrators and techs block most blog, podcast, and video-hosting sites. Richardson' argument of taking control of a school's online presence just gives me another avenue in trying to change minds about Web 2.0 in schools.

The Will Richardson Project: Building Networks in Schools

For my professional development goals as an instructional specialist and future school administrator, I am reading a few articles by Will Richardson and posting my thoughts here. Feel free to join the conversation in the comments. Building networks in schools: creating your own social network is easier than you might think. District Administration - December 1, 2007

Summary: Today's student is all over social networking. Sites like MySpace and Facebook occupy our students' every moment outside of school. Now, with the highly adaptable Ning, educators can utilize social networking within the classroom (virtual or real) to teach them not only how to collaborate but also how to properly manage their social networks. Additionally, Ning could be utilized for professional development purposes.


What I Think: Ning has been around for a while, but I don't think it's properly caught on. Teachers seem to be turning to various versions of Moodle and related hosting sites. Regardless, a Ning is so highly adaptable that a teacher can disguise learning, collaboration, and interaction as social-networking. I belong to Nings for both my work in edtech and for my craft beer/homebrewing hobby. A friend has used a Ning for her college composition course. I don't know if the problem is interest or an over-saturation of social-networking. Either way, I'll be interested to see how things develop over at Ning.com.


How does this help me with my work? It's nice to realize that there is something out there that resembles a Moodle less and a Facebook more. I've had plans to start a Ning for teachers in my network, but they seem so bogged down with so many other networks. A good alternative is to simply utilize the Nings that already exist out there for eMINTS and to encourage their use whenever a teacher is looking for a new way to engage students.

Professional Development 2.0

By now people have realized that if you want to label something as new and innovative (especially anything old that uses interactive Internet tools) you just add "2.0" to the end. This is thanks to the development and growth of Web 2.0, the current era in Internet technology that is all about interactivity, connectivity, and accessibility. Finally, someone is talking about how these tools can be used to enhance teacher professional development.

Actually, it's been talked about a lot. I've even harped on it in an earlier-now-defunct version of this blog. Anything that involves education and Web 2.0 is a hot topic on the ed-tech blogosphere.

What I'm talking about is David Warlick's recent post about utilizing blogs, social networks (yes, even Facebook), and wikis to help develop teacher knowledge. Using these resources is a way for strapped districts to help their teachers develop pedagogy, methodology, and their use of technology. If you haven't read his post, go here and read it now.

It also reminds me of a colleague's idea to create websites that simply compile RSS feeds of anything education related and selling the service to school districts. Of course, he saw the ethical dilemma and chose not to try his idea out, but the thought is a good one. Why don't schools do this for themselves?

My idea has always been to create a network of blogs within a school building (or even a Ning) and require the staff to register for RSS readers. This would get them talking about teaching practices, curriculum ideas, etc. on their own time without requiring boring after-school PD sessions. Maybe I'll get a chance to try that out someday.

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In other edtech blog news...

Will Richardson posted the following statistic at his blog Webblog-ed:

Fewer than 25 percent of educators feel comfortable teaching students how to protect themselves from online predators, cyberbullies and identity thieves, says a new study from the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) and Educational Technology, Policy Research and Outreach (ET PRO).

He pulled this stat from an article on District Administration.

It's interesting because we spend so much time teaching students about other dangers and ethics. Why not teach them of the dangers online?

This will have to change.

Smaller Is Better

If the old clods at MIT can figure it out, we should too. It seems that the venerable Massachusetts Institute of Technology did some research and found it more beneficial for their classes to be smaller and to utilize a more interactive approach.

Hm. If only the rest of us could figure that out.

The Will Richardson Project: Online-Powered School Libraries

For my professional development goals as an instructional specialist and future school administrator, I am reading a few articles by Will Richardson and posting my thoughts here. Feel free to join the conversation in the comments.

Online-Powered School Libraries:Web 2.0 technologies are transforming the school library.
District Administration - January 1, 2007

Summary: School libraries are leading the way into Web 2.0 through such tools as blogs, wikis, RSS feeds, etc. in an effort to become a more interactive resource center for both students and staff. Richardson also lays out some simple examples of tools and libraries who are at the forefront of the this shift.

What I Think: I have been mulling this over for a year or two. Why can't libraries become more 2.0 friendly? I feel the obstacles are two-fold similar to issues in the classroom: ignorance and tradition.

One problem is that too many school librarians are neophytes to Web 2.0 or are not actually librarians. Two of the districts in which I have worked have featured aids running the libraries under a librarian in charge of several schools. So, students do not often have librarians skilled or even comfortable with Web 2.0 tools. They know their Dewey decimal system, but not Wikipedia or Blogger.

Another problem is the idea that all that you will ever need to know is in the library. This has always been a problem for me. Growing up in a rural area with little resources for libraries, I learned quickly that all there is to learn cannot be found in one library. Sadly, this has not changed much in recent decades. If online tools are accessed with greater frequency and students are seen as knowledge producers as opposed to just consumers, the school library can become a place of great learning and interconnectivity.

Once one gets past the obstacles, Richardson presents an exciting new way to view libraries. Students often see it as the place they go to once a week to have a story read to them and to check out books. While this function of the library does not have to change completely, it can serve a greater purpose in education. The library could become the epicenter of learning it is meant to be by expanding its function to incorporate Web 2.0.

How does this help me with my work? I worked with a librarian last year, and we struggled with applying the eMINTS instructional model to her library. We spent a lot of time dealing with her instructional approach as opposed to altering the way her library worked. I have a second chance with a librarian this year and will take many of these ideas to heart.