Welcome back! We’re now ready to start our second course, focused mostly on Digital Citizenship and Copyright & Creative Commons. Thankfully, we have superstar YIS librarian, Brian Farrell, with us as an instructor to help us navigate the wild and crazy world of copyright!
Our first week looks at the importance of having a positive online presence, which everyone in the course is building through regular blogging. As you read through the readings this week, think about how we can embed this kind of experience in our classrooms as well as we are doing it in our professional lives.
A few reminders:
Our next meeting is next Tuesday, November 8th from 4:30 – 6:30 in the Loft at YIS.
All Course 2 documents are now shared in the COETAIL@YIS collection in Google Docs. You can find Course 2 Week 1 there as well, so you can get started with this week’s readings.
Assignments for Course 2 follow the same process as Course 1: 1 blog post per week, 1 comment per week plus a final project at the end with an additional reflective blog post. All assignments are due by: December 17, 2011, by then you should have:
All grading for Course 1 will be completed this week. Your instructor will e-mail you (individually) your final grade for Course 1. Please let Adam or me know if you have any questions. Please ensure that all of your work for Course 1 has been completed.
Looking forward to seeing everyone at YIS next week!
Another fantastic meeting, lots of great ideas and questions to prompt our discussions last night. Thank you! Here’s a short recap of what we covered, again, please feel free to add anything I missed in the comments.
Discussion Highlights
We started our meeting off with a great intro from YIS Headmaster, James MacDonald. A huge thank you to James for taking time out of his very busy day to talk to us! Most of James’ talk centered on the Connected Learning Community program that we implemented this school year. For those of you that are interested in learning a little more about what we’ve done, here are a few resources that might be interesting:
Going 1:1 has been an amazingly smooth process here, and I’m sure our staff would be happy to talk about how it’s changed the teaching and learning environment any time. Course 4 will focus more on these kinds of practicalities, but we certainly don’t have to hold off conversations until then if people are interested now
After James’ intro, we watched a short video from Good to prompt our small group discussions:
This prompted us to talk about the role of motivation in student learning, which lead to a short discussion about Sugata Mitra’s work on the “Hole in the Wall” project, and his TED Talk, along with another short video which sums up one aspect of his research findings:
Both videos, and some of the reading we’ve been doing, also prompted a short discussion on the future of teaching as a career, and how our profession is and will continue to change. Of course, lots of people are talking about this in various networks online, here are a few articles that might prompt your thinking and continue the discussion in our cohort meetings:
Add your thoughts in the comments, or reflect on your own blog.
The Horizon Report
We spent the majority of our session digesting and understanding the 6 trends in the Horizon Report. There are a few interesting highlights about this report and how it’s produced that James hit upon in his introduction:
For starters, the Report is a great tool to use as a benchmark for your school. If your administrators and teachers read the report and think, “Great, we’re doing, or at least thinking about doing, most of these things” than you’re probably right on track with educational technology trends on a global scale. However, if your administrators and teachers read the report and think, “What?! I don’t understand any of this!” perhaps it’s time for a reframing of how you view technology and it’s role in your school. Because the report is developed by educators and researchers from around the world, it really is a true representation of what’s on the horizon (wink, wink).
The Report is also fascinating for the way it is developed. I have been fortunate to be on the K12 Advisory Board for the last three years (or so) and every year I amazed at how it’s put together. Basically, the entire report grows totally organically from the seeds that the NMC plants for us. They share some highlighted trends that they have identified and we read, share, and collect resources and research from around the world, organize everything on a collaborative wiki, add our thoughts and reflections in a central space, and then go through several layers of voting to determine which trends will happen at which time, which challenges are the most prevalent, and which general educational trends are key. I have never had the opportunity to meet with any of the other Advisory Board members in person, but we have successfully collaborated for several years to produce a very tangible and well-respected report. The NMC, and especially Larry Johnson, do an amazing job of bringing this group of people together and facilitating the project from start to finish in such a collaborative and engaging way, the process actually provides just as much of a vision for the future of learning as the actual report does!
Several fantastic resources were shared for the 6 trends in the small group discussions:
Finally we did a wrap-up of the course and a brief overview of how to complete the final project.
Course 1 Requirements: A total of 6 weekly blog posts + the Final Project described below (for a total of 7 blog posts and 1 unit)
Deadline: All Course 1 work must be completed by: 23 October 2011
Final Project Components:
1 Unit Planner (not a lesson planner, this is big picture)
1 blog post reflection about your unit planner, covering these kinds of topics:
How did you develop the unit?
How are you planning to implement the unit?
If you were able to implement, how did it go? What would you change?
If you have not implemented yet, what are your main concerns? What are your goals?
For those who would like some resources for UbD, I’ve bookmarked a few favorites. If anyone has anything else that might be helpful, please feel free to share those in the comments.
Once you finish your unit planner and write your reflection, please embed your unit into the blog post. Thanks to Jeff for creating this video that demonstrates how to do it!
As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns! Looking forward to Course 2!
Thank you for a productive and thought-provoking meeting last night! Maybe it’s just me, but I love being in a room full of people, thinking and discussing big ideas and how to implement them. Here’s a short recap of what we talked about (please feel free to add anything I missed in the comments):
Discussion Highlights
Thinking about the SAMR model of technology integration in schools, and our goal of moving from substitution to redefinition.
A recent study of 997 schools across the United States (Greaves, Hayes, Wilson, et al., 2010) identified nine factors that, if present, appear to contribute to higher levels of achievement in schools that have adopted one-to-one programs. The top three factors were
Ensuring uniform integration of technology in every class.
Providing time for teacher learning and collaboration (at least monthly).
Using technology daily for student online collaboration and cooperative learning.
We agree that this type of learning is only successful when practiced regularly and is absolutely transparent to all stakeholders.
We had a rich discussion about what young students need to know about Google/Search:
there’s lots of information available online
it’s possible to search, first searches could be from teacher-selected sources
once you’ve found something – you need to determine if it is what you were looking for.
how to evaluate sources
sometimes you might find things that you don’t want to see – close the lid & ask an adult
SpeedGeeking
Huge thanks to Adam, Mitch, Joy, Rebekah, Alex and Brendan for sharing some strategies with the group. If you’re interested in sharing something with the group, please let me know (via the survey I just sent around). Here are a few highlights I caught from staying at one table, if you’ve taken other notes and you’d like to share, that would be great! Next time we’re definitely doing collaborative note taking!
Blogging:
Please don’t be scared of blogging. We know it’s new for many of you, and it can be very challenging at the start. Take your time, write from the heart, write what’s comfortable and keep trying. Over time not only will you feel more comfortable, but your writing will get better and better. (I know from personal experience, take a look at my awful first blog post, and this reflection a year and a half later, and then compare to my current posts).
Links should go to actual post you’re referencing – instead of linking back to the main blog URL (you can do this by clicking on the blog post title and taking the URL from the address bar to create your link)
Please use Creative Commons images in your posts, there are tons of great ways to search, this one is my favorite (please add yours in the comments).
Don’t forget to cite your sources! When you use CC images, you always have to link back to the original work and include the author’s name.
As you’re blogging, think about the digital footprints you leave behind. It’s always a good idea to “praise locally and criticize globally” (thanks Doug!) – your posts reflect on you as a professional, as well as your school.
Your posts can become great marketing for your school, highlight successes and reflect thoughtfully.
Take a look at some exciting examples of “the new resume“. How will your COETAIL blog help you when recruiting time comes?
Project Overviews:
We have some great projects already in the works for course 1!
Please remember that your project should be relevant to you, your class, and your learning at this time. We can make pretty much anything work, just let us know!
Please ask if you have questions.
Just in case you’re wondering what happens to these projects, you can always search the COETAIL blog for previous ideas, and here’s one of my favorites, born in our first COETAIL cohort at ISB: In the Mix (a student managed and authored school newspaper in blog format).
Productivity
Thanks to Mitch for some great FireFox tips – if you want to know more, he’s the man to see!
Thanks to Alex for some equally fantastic Google Docs tips, like removing docs from your home menu, filtering for certain types of docs in your home menu, and organizing collections within other collections (including collections that have been shared with you).
Next Meeting
Our next meeting is Tuesday, October 4th at 4:30pm in the Loft at YIS (if you haven’t already subscribed to the COETAIL calendar, I recommend that you do. I’ll be working on adding the “weeks” to that calendar too, which should make it easier for you to follow).
James MacDonald, our fantastic YIS Headmaster, will say a few words (he stopped by briefly last night). Then, we’ll be taking a detailed look at the Horizon Report in small groups, in addition to our general starter discussion about your recent readings, and a small bit of project time to get yourselves organized. If I forget, please make sure I:
organize the collaborative notes (I’ll need three note-takers to help with this).
show you how to embed a Google Doc into a blog post
show you how to search the COETAIL blog for previous projects
Final Thought
A wonderful colleague, Aloni Cahusac, who teaches grade 5 at CDNIS in Hong Kong recently made this video for her Back to School Night presentation:
Wow! What a fantastic weekend workshop! Huge thanks to Chris Betcher for joining us and leading an amazing two days of learning! If you are interested in going back and reviewing any of the sessions, please feel free to view the livestream recording. Of course, all of the resources from the weekend, including a .pdf of all the tweets & all of the pictures taken, are available on the workshop wiki. Also, Chris gave a fabulous presentation, “Lessons from the Yamanote Line” at YIS this past Monday that you might be interested in watching.
Weekly Assignments: In other COETAIL news, we’re already on to Week 4 of Course 1. Hopefully you’ve been able to spend some time with the readings, blogging and commenting. As you are reflecting on your blog, please remember that the questions in the weekly documents are just there as a prompt if you need them. Please feel free to write about whatever you’re thinking, based on the topic for the week – there is no need to directly respond to the questions (unless you want to).
Grading Spreadsheets: Adam and I are (slowly) reading all of your posts and leaving comments, so please remember to include the title of the post you would like us to assess for each week on your grading spreadsheet. Although we plan to read all of your posts, this helps us be a little more efficient with our time.
Re-organized Google Docs: To make things a little more streamlined I’ve re-shared a new folder with all of you called COETAIL@YIS Documents. Please make sure to check your e-mail for the link (you’ll need to click on the link to get access to the document). I hope this will make it easier for you to find everything you need.
Final Project: A few people mentioned at the workshop that they were not clear on the final project, and a written explanation would be helpful. I’ve written it up for you and put it in the Course 1 collection, along with a new collection where you can add your final projects to share with the group. Basically, you will be creating a unit plan that you can use in your classes at some point in the future. If you can complete the project in the next few weeks, great. If not, don’t worry. The project is about the process of writing up the unit planner and writing a reflection on your blog. If you’re not currently in the classroom, you do not have to complete a unit planner if it’s not the best use of your time. Please discuss with me or Adam what would work best for you.
Participant Twitter List: I’m currently working on creating a Twitter list for our YIS cohort (but don’t forget about the main COETAIL.Asia list managed by Jeff). If you don’t see your name on there, please let me know so I can add you.
Participant Blogs: As you know, Mitch made us a Netvibes page (linked in the menu here on this blog). If you’re not yet on that page, please leave a comment here or e-mail Mitch to let him know. For those of you that would prefer to use Google Reader, Alex has made us a bundle that you can subscribe to as well. Again, if you’re not on that list, please leave a comment or e-mail Alex. These are two great ways to follow all of the participant blogs without having to subscribe to each one. Thanks Mitch and Alex!
Next Meeting: Our next face to face meeting will be Tuesday, September 27th at YIS from 4:30 – 6:30 in the Loft. If you’re interested, you can subscribe to the Google Calendar at right so you always have the updates for our meeting dates.
As always, please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. Thanks again for your energy and enthusiasm this past weekend! It was such a pleasure to spend the weekend with all of you!
Woohoo! We’re already well into Week 2 and it’s almost time for our first weekend workshop, with Chris Betcher focusing on becoming a Networked Educator.
In preparation for this weekend, here are a few important reminders:
Agenda: We’ll be following the workshop agenda plus an extra hour on Saturday to get connected with the work we’re doing as a cohort. Please plan to stay at YIS until 5:30 at the earliest on Saturday.
Hotel: If you would like to stay Saturday night, the closest, most reasonably priced hotel is the Star Hotel (it’s definitely not fancy, but it’ll do the job).
Costs & Course Credit: As a member of COETAIL, there are no extra costs for this workshop and you are already receiving credit for this workshop and can not apply to earn any more credits.
Assignments: Hopefully at this point, you have completed the readings and blog posts for Week 1. Week 2 ends tomorrow, so ideally you will also be finished with those readings, posts and comments by the time you arrive at the workshop on Saturday. We’ll be delving deeper into some of that material and building connections to other learning facilitated by Chris.
Reading Participant Blogs: One of the benefits of working in a cohort is that you can read and connect with other teachers thinking and reflecting on the same content and ideas. This is why we’re asking you to comment on other blogs regularly as well. Superstar cohort member, Mitch, has created a Netvibes page for us with all of the participant blogs listed as of last week (there are a few more who still need to add their data to the spreadsheet). I’ve also added this as a tab on the blog so you can find it easily. Thanks Mitch!
More Learning from Learning 2.011 in Shanghai: If you were not able to attend this amazing educational technology conference last weekend, you can take a peek at what happened by following the conference hashtag: #learning2
We also had a short #coetail meetup at the conference to get to know some of the participants from other cohorts. It’s great to see everyone and hear how each cohort is progressing! Please take advantage of this wide network of educators from all around Asia by following the Twitter list, hashtag and blog posts right here on this blog!
Final Thoughts
Looking forward to seeing you all here on Saturday morning! Please let us know if you have any questions/concerns.
