Wikis: The Power of Collaborative Learning





Tech Tips: Internet Explorer 7 Printing Shortcuts








Photo Credit


Why Wiki (PDF File)
Educator Louise Maine provides an excellent chart highlighting how wikis enhance 21st century learning.

The Power of Wikis in Higher Ed
Writing in Campus Technology, Linda L Briggs describes the benefits of using wikis in higher education.

Wiki Woman: How a Web Tool Saved My Career
Grace Rubinstein offers quick tips for successful use of wikis in the classroom and describes how a high school teacher transformed her teaching with the use of wikis.

The Wiki Revolution: A Challenge To Traditional Education
Rita Zeinstejer lists effective uses of wikis to enhance instruction and professional development.

Examples of Educational Wikis
The PBWiki Educators section provides links to examples of quality educational wikis.

GoApes Wiki
Here’s a terrific example of an effective professional development Web site that was nominated for Edublogs’ Best Educational Wiki of 2007. The audience is environmental educators, but the model is useful for all teaching areas.

Tech Tips: Internet Explorer 7 Printing Shortcuts
Tip #1: When you only want to print part of a Web page such as a paragraph or an image, you can copy and paste into a word processor and print from there; however, here is a quicker way:

Highlight the desired text or image with the mouse, go to the File menu and select Print, and then click the Selection button. Now only the selected part will print.

Tip #2: If a desired Web page includes links to other must-print Web pages, you can easily print both the original Web page and the linked pages all at once.

Go to File- Print, select the Option tab, check the Print all Linked Documents box, and then click OK.

Sign Up Soon for Online Courses Starting in September
http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/courses.shtml
Meet your professional development goals for learning new skills, changing salary lanes, licensure renewal and advanced certification.
The following classes still have openings:

Courses Beginning on September 15
EDUC 744 954 Instructional Leadership Skills
EDUC 744 930 Web Design for Educators
EDUC 744 939 Intermediate Web Design


Courses Beginning on September 17
RDGED 703 Children’s Literature in the Reading Program
RDGED 704 Young Adult Literature in the Reading Program
EDUC 744 941 Mentoring Teachers


Courses Beginning on September 19
EDUC 744 958 Teaching Art for Non-Art Teachers
EDUC 744 963 Teaching English Language Learners (ELL) in General Education


Courses beginning on September 22
EDUC 744 957 Differentiation in the Classroom
EDUC 744 920 Teaching Writing with the 6-Traits
EDUC 744 911 Effective Classroom Management
EDUC 760 E-learning for Educators
EDUC 762 Assessment in E-Learning
EDUC 763 Instructional Design for E-Learning
RDGED 705 Instructional Techniques for Assisting Students with Reading Difficulties
RDGED 702 Reading in the Content Areas K-12
EDUC 744 951 Teaching Information Literacy
EDUC 744 940 School Library and Classroom Collaborations


Courses Beginning on September 29
EDUC 744 914 Methods of Teaching Middle School Math (Grades 4-8)
EDUC 744 965 Issues and Problems in Teaching Primary Mathematics - K-3
EDUC 744 956 Building Better Instruction with Technology
EDUC 744 964 Workforce Development: Every Teacher’s Responsibility
EDUC 744 928 Instructional Applications of Digital Photography
EDUC 744 966 Implementing Instructional Technology Innovations
EDUC 744 938 Digital Media and Visual Literacy
EDUC 744 927 Innovations and Opportunities for Media Specialists


REGISTER ONLINE TO RESERVE A SPOT
http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/register.shtml

Participate from your home computer; no travel to campus is required. Select university billing, and no payment is due until early September. A payment plan option is available for fall semester

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posted by Karen Franker, Editor @ 8/27/2008 09:03:00 PM  




Joyce Valenza –21st Century Research Skills: Navigating the Shifting Information Landscape

Tech Tip:Personalize Your Desktop With Gadgets and Widgets



Interview with Joyce Valenza

This interview is with Joyce Valenza, Springfield Township (PA) High School Teacher-Librarian and technology writer, who is a featured blogger and presenter at numerous conferences.

What are the greatest challenges for teachers and teacher-librarians when teaching the effective use of research skills/strategies?
At this moment it is understanding the shifting landscape. The last two years saw dramatic change in the information landscape. The change forces us to examine new questions: How do we respect intellectual property in a mash-up universe? What do creative, effective information products look like? How do we balance issues of privacy and safety in an information landscape that busts through borders and invites us to share our ideas and our work? How do we use these new tools to participate creatively in global discussion? How do we best exploit exciting new opportunities for authorship and audience? What "old world" tools and skills need to be carried over into our new projects?

You have spoken of students as being either "sponges," absorbing information passively; or "miners," actively searching for information gems. How can educators structure research assignments to help students become “miners” instead of “sponges”?
If they haven't already done so, every district should ban the "report." If you asked me to write a report on Pennsylvania, I'd likely print you an encyclopedia article. That work has already been done far better than I could do it myself. Students need to use information to imagine, to solve, to analyze, to propose, to invent, to create. Give me a challenge or allow me to create my own information challenge based on my own questions and passions. Ask me (or allow me) instead to create a commercial promoting travel to my state and post it on YouTube. Ask me to make a decision (based on criteria I myself develop) about whether to move to Philadelphia or Pittsburgh. Ask me to collaborate on solving a local problem in a wiki and to present my solution using a media slideshow I could share on the Web.

How can Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, wikis, del.icio.us, and GoogleDocs enhance and transform the teaching of K-12 information literacy/fluency skills?
Among the most powerful applications we've used so far:
Blogs to record, manage and reflect on major research projects. These make the chaotic process more transparent and more interactive. They allow teacher, librarian, mentor, and peer intervention. They can also prevent research disasters.
Wiki pathfinders allow teachers, librarians and learners to collaborate as they construct guides for projects and lead students to sources they might not discover independently. We've moved most of our lit circle activity to blogs. Each circle manages its discussion, setting up timelines, establishing categories. Our teachers love that they can easily assess the level of participation and quickly gather what any group or student had to say regarding characterization.
We love using tools like Animoto and Voicethread for preparing powerful media presentations.We use GoogleDocs for group writing and to allow teachers and librarians to suggest edits. We are exploring ZohoPolls for original research as well.

Students work hard to craft solid questions and make sense of the data they collect.We've recognized what our misuse of PowerPoint has done to our school. We are considering new presentation options and tools, as well as the concept of "presentation zen." How can we best connect with an audience? What does effective storytelling look like in the 21st century?

How can we help our students create their own meaningful information spaces to support their work as learners?
I think we may need to guide them to widgetizing their personal desktops. This year we asked our seniors to use iGoogle as a tool to organize their senior projects. I see more tools like that emerging. Now students can open an interface and be presented with their favorite online dictionary, foreign language tools, mapping tool, thesaurus, calendar, to-do list, while they push research-relevant RSS feeds to them through a reader. They choose their theme. Their little game applets are there too. This was perhaps the "stickiest" activity they've done yet this school year. The spaces continue to grow more personally meaningful.

I look forward to the day when we can offer more widgetized library tools. So the student who needs the American History database this semester can drag that widget onto her desktop and replace it (or schooch it further down) to substitute a science database widget next semester. We also ask students to consider their research blogs as their own information spaces. Blogs help students organize, categorize, reflect. They can be customized learning spaces.

Tech Tip: Personalize Your Desktop With Gadgets and Widgets
A host of free “mini-apps” are available to personalize your computer workspace for fun and productivity, and to gather your frequently-used information resources in one spot. In Macintosh OS X, these are called “dashboard widgets”, in Yahoo they are “widgets”, in Windows Vista they are “sidebar gadgets” and in iGoogle they are simply “gadgets”. Since there is no universal format for widgets/gadgets, a widget designed for Mac’s OS X Dashboard won’t work in iGoogle or Vista, or vice versa. However, there are options for converting Google gadgets to Dashboard or Vista Sidebar formats.

Here are links to directions and galleries for adding widgets/gadgets to Mac OS X, iGoogle, Vista, and Yahoo.

How to Add Widgets to Mac OS X Tiger Dashboard; Apple Downloads – Dashboard Widgets
How to Create and Share Your Own iGoogle Gadgets
Personalize Windows Vista Sidebar
Yahoo! Widgets


Announcement
Download our new poster for your bulletin board at:http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/pdf/poster.pdf
Are you looking for graduate courses that support your professional development goals for changing salary lanes, licensure renewal or advanced certification? January classes are filling now. No payment is due until the beginning of the semester.

SEARCH/BROWSE LIST OF NEW COURSES http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/courses.shtml

REGISTER ONLINE AT:http://www.uwstout.edu/soe/profdev/register.shtml
Educators who are registering for an online course do not need to apply for graduate admission to the university unless you are beginning a Masters degree program at University of Wisconsin-Stout.



















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posted by Karen Franker, Editor @ 11/14/2007 08:16:00 AM  

Four Terrific Tech Resources to Explore This Summer

Today’s Topic:
Four Terrific Tech Resources to Explore This Summer
Tech Tip: Copy and Delete a File at the Same Time

  • Which new tech tools are having a significant impact on teaching and learning in many classrooms?

  • What are some cutting-edge Web resources that best reflect interactive and collaborative learning trends?

Infinite Thinking Machine
Sponsored by Google and written by educators, this is a top site for keeping informed about the newest tech trends. If you only have time for one tech blog each week, make it this one!

PB Wiki
“Make a free Wiki as easily as a peanut butter sandwich” on this user-friendly site which is perfect for beginning Wiki creators. For more on wikis, see the excellent YouTube video “Wikis in Plain English”.

Teacher Tube
View teacher-created instructional videos and upload your own videos on this educator version of YouTube created by teacher Jason Smith. Search for professional development videos or locate movies to help your students learn a particular skill.

Del.icio.us
Enter the world of social bookmarking and discover a huge collection of shared, searchable Web favorites. Find out what other teachers think are the best Websites and share yours. Save and organize your personal bookmarks and access them from any computer on the web.

Tech Tip: Copy and Delete a File at the Same Time (Mac OS 10.4)
Here’s a time-saving tip for clearing files off one computer and transferring them to another.

When dragging a copy of a file to another disk (flash drive, network drive, etc.) the original file normally stays on your hard drive. If you want to have the original file deleted as soon as it’s copied, do the following:

Hold the Command key as you drag the file icon to its new destination. The Mac will copy the file to the new drive and delete the original from your hard drive, all in one step!

Announcements

Consider taking a summer online course from the comfort of your home and earn graduate credits to meet your professional development goals for licensure renewal.

FINAL CALL
June 18
EDUC 744 911 Effective Classroom Management — Elementary
EDUC 744 912 Effective Classroom Management — Middle School-High School
EDUC 744 920 Teaching Writing with the 6-Traits — Elementary
EDUC 744 909 Teaching Writing with the 6-Traits — Middle School/High School
EDUC 744 925 Bullying in Schools
EDUC 744 951 Digital Classroom: Teaching Information Literacy with Primary Sources
EDUC 760 E-Learning for Educators
EDUC 762 Assessment in E-learning
EDUC 744 949 Instructional Role of Assessment
EDUC 744 937 Learning Applications for the iPod® and Handheld Computers
EDUC 744 928 Digital Photography Basics and Graphic Design for the Classroom
EDUC 744 938 Digital Media and Visual Literacy

June 19
EDUC 744 940 School Library and Classroom Collaboration

June 21
EDUC 744-941 Mentoring Teachers (PK-12)

June 25
EDUC 744 930 Web Design

REGISTER ONLINE
Registration closes ten days before the class begins to provide time for assigning your university user name, password, university email address, ordering class materials and online orientation.

Call University of Wisconsin-Stout Online Professional Development (715) 642-0209 if you have questions. UW-Stout is an "international-student- friendly" program.

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posted by Karen Franker, Editor @ 6/06/2007 10:56:00 AM  

Wikis Re-Visited: How Teachers Are Using Wikis


Today's Topics:


Wikis Re-Visited: How Teachers Are Using Wikis
Tech Tip: Creating Online "To Do" Lists

  • How are wikis transforming teaching and learning in 2007?

  • What are some effective ways to use wikis in your classroom?

    Wild About Wikis
    David Jakes explains the educational benefits of wikis and lists some wiki-creation resources. He also includes an “Eleven Wikis to Watch” list and examples of teachers using wikis in the classroom.

    Uses and Potentials of Wikis in the Classroom
    S. Pixy Ferris and Hilary Wilder explain why wikis are a perfect fit for the way today’s digital native students prefer to learn.

    Wiki in a K-12 Classroom
    The WikEd staff provides brief descriptions of seven ways that wikis are effectively incorporated in K-12 classrooms.

    Tech Tip – Creating Online “To Do” Lists
    It can be a challenge to keep track of all those “to do” lists scribbled on sticky notes! Two free online tools make quick work of storing and organizing all of your lists in a central location, and makes them accessible from any Internet-connected device. Here are two popular sites to try:

    BackPack
    Backpack allows you to make pages with to-do lists, notes, files, and images. It also features a Calendar and Reminders that can be sent via email or to your cell phone at predetermined times.

    Remember the Milk
    An easy-to-use tool which allows you to print individual lists or a weekly calendar. Tasks can be prioritized and multiple lists created.

    Announcements
    FREE (Federal Resources for Educational Excellence) Site Redesigned
    A new "subject map" on the FREE site shows more than 100 topics and the number of resources for each. The goal of FREE remains the same: to make it easier for you to find more than 1500 teaching and learning resources available from the federal government.

    What Our Students Are Saying...
    About the online course Digital Media and Visual Literacy:

    "This course is for the educator with an interest in digital video editing. If you want to make quality video productions, this is the class for you. Make some time in your busy schedule to take this important and necessary step to better videos. Books and references are nice, but this class makes your get your hands dirty. If you get involved, the learning improves."
    ~ Educational Technologist from Ohio

    "... the flexibility that working online offers. The readings helped tremendously to clear up some misconceptions I had about copyright, video editing, etc. The resources provided helped tremendously with my classes."
    ~ Computer Teacher/Tech Coordinator - Reading, Massachusetts

    "I have realized that using digital media in the class is a magnificent motivational tool. It allows students to perform and perfect essential life skills such as problem solving, responsibility, cooperation, planning ahead, following a timeline, and perseverance just to name a few."
    ~     Elementary Teacher - Taichung, Taiwan

    Call University of Wisconsin-Stout Online Professional Development (715) 642-0209 if you have questions. UW-Stout is an "international-student- friendly" program.






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posted by Karen Franker, Editor @ 1/21/2007 07:27:00 PM