Jason Rhode, Ph.D.

Preparing for new sections of EDT 6030 to begin

2011-12-12T04:02:00.000-06:00

I'm in the process of preparing to teach new sections of EDT 6030 beginning in January. As a result, I'll be recycling my blog here as I reuse it for this new section I'm teaching.

For former students who don't want to receive posts from me for new sections of this course, please feel free to unsubscribe from this feed and subscribe to my personal/professional blog at jasonrhode.com/blog

~ Dr. J

More Students Embrace Online Learning

2011-12-05T04:04:00.000-06:00

By Diette Courrégé, Post and Courier

Debra Sewell sat alongside her 6-year-old son in his classroom, a bedroom of their North Charleston home. It’s home schooling with a twist — Malachi is enrolled in a public online school. The first-grader connects to his lessons, classmates and teacher through his computer, receiving a public education minus the traditional brick-and-mortar school. Sewell said her son’s enrollment in an online charter school allows him to work at his own pace and addresses concerns about his severe food allergies. Virtual learning is a relatively new concept to the Palmetto State, but interest in it is intense. Online charter schools launched in South Carolina last year, and enrollment grew 40 percent to 7,492 students this year.

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/nov/26/more-students-embrace-virtual-learning/

Digital Nation: Distracted by Everything

2011-12-03T04:12:00.000-06:00

A while back PBS aired a Frontline episode called "Digital Nation," about how technology is transforming our country and our global culture.... and completely distracting us. The fourth section is particularly interesting for schoolteachers.

Click here to view the show online.

Have you personally found that as your use of technology has increased, you are more easily distracted? These are certainly timely issues to consider, especially as technology isn't going away.

Top 100 Technology Blogs for Teachers

2011-12-02T04:12:00.000-06:00

As you continue to look to build your own personal learning network, here's a great collection of technology blogs specifically geared toward education that you might find of interest:

http://www.onlinedegrees.org/top-100-technology-blogs-for-teachers

~ Dr. J

Preparing Students for Commenting with Wall Blogging

2011-12-01T04:14:00.000-06:00

For those considering having your students blog, here are some great suggestions for teaching students how to post appropriate comments:

http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/11/26/preparing-students-for-commenting-with-wall-blogging/

How to Use Facebook for Social Learning

2011-11-30T04:13:00.000-06:00

This Guide looks at how to use Facebook for Social Learning - that is to build a community, communicate, collaborate with others, as well as share information and resources. In addition it looks at how it can be used for more specific formal, social learning events and programs.

http://c4lpt.co.uk/140Learning/facebook.html

Online Learning Partnerships for Elementary Success

2011-11-29T04:12:00.000-06:00

Becoming an online elementary teacher was a steep learning curve, even for Joyce Voelker, a former principal and veteran teacher, “it took an entirely different skill set.” She was skeptical of an online elementary school, but after one year of teaching online, she is a wholehearted advocate after seeing the benefit to a wide span of families. “For every student, there is a different reason — behavior issues, health conditions, or students that are just a little different — but they come alive in this program and it is a godsend for these families.”

Read the article at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tom-vander-ark/online-partnerships-for-e_b_776285.html

Bill Gates on Online Learning

2011-11-28T04:12:00.000-06:00

Bill Gates offers his thoughts on innovation in education and helping students learn through technology. Online lectures, interactive teaching, and customized learning approaches are pointing the way to improved schools.

Keeping Pace with K-12 Learning

2011-11-24T04:11:00.000-06:00

Online learning at the K-12 level has grown so much in recent years that the main issue in most states is no longer whether or not online learning is occurring, but rather how it is being implemented. Most states (45 as of September 2009) have significant supplemental online learning programs, or significant full-time programs, or both. Of the states that do not have either of these options, several have begun planning for online learning development. In addition to the spread of online learning programs to most states across the country, the majority of existing online programs show considerable growth in the number of students they are serving.

Keeping Pace with K-12 Online Learning: A Review of State-Level Policy and Practice, 2010 is the latest in a series of annual reports that began in 2004 that examine the status of K-12 online education across the country, providing a research-based overview of the latest policies, practices and trends affecting online learning programs across all 50 states.

You can download your copy here.

The Connected Student

2011-11-23T04:05:00.000-06:00

Closely related to the idea concept of personal learning networks is connectivism. Connectivism is a learning theory advocated by George Siemens and Stephen Downes, among others, which emphasises the importance and role of networks and connections between people (and things?) as preminent (central) to the learning process (via Wikiversity).

So how might connectivism be realized in a K-12 classroom setting? Why as educators should we understand the value of personal learning networks and seek to create learning opportunities for our students to develop their own personal learning networks?

Here is a wonderful video by Wendy Drexler titled “The Networked Student” that shows how online networking can enhance students’ 21st century skills. It depicts an actual project completed by Wendy's high school students.

As Kate Klingensmith points out,

When you have a large group of people combing through vast amounts of information and collectively identifying the most useful, entertaining, or valuable parts, it only makes sense to tap into this collective knowledge!

How might you personally and professionally become more connected? How might you encourage your students to develop their own personal learning networks? A few more ideas for you to consider!

Changing Education Paradigms

2011-11-22T04:09:00.000-06:00

Watch this animate adapted from a talk given by Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert on the need for a change in the paradigm of education today.

What point do you agree, or disagree with, most? What role could learning communities play in changing the current paradigm of education? Leave a comment with your thoughts!

~ Dr. J

Aviary: Free Web-based Screen Capture & Markup Tool

2011-11-21T04:08:00.000-06:00

Here's a free, very simple screen capture & annotation tool that I just stumbled across called Aviary Talon. Capture any webpage by adding Aviary.com/ to the beginning of the URL!

Aviary offers a variety of other web-based graphics editing features if you're looking to do some advanced editing to your screen captures.

Click here to view a quick preview video of Aviary's image editing capabilities.

Personal Learning Networks

2011-11-20T04:17:00.000-06:00

As we explore the use of technology to build learning communities, one important form or learning communities that must be considered is that of personal learning networks. While a quick search on the web will yield numerous definitions of what a personal learning network (PLN) is, at the core a PLN is simply an personalized network of resources and collaborations that an individual both contributes to and learns from.

Will Richardson, veteran educator and author of Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms is one of the individuals who is part of my personal learning network. He shares in this short video a few of his thoughts regarding the importance of personal learning networks in education today.

What does your own personal learning network consist of?

Growing Up Digital, Wired for Distraction

2011-11-19T04:15:00.003-06:00

Students have always faced distractions and time-wasters. But computers and cellphones, and the constant stream of stimuli they offer, pose a profound new challenge to focusing and learning.
Read the NY Times article at http://nyti.ms/ctxxwk

Why Twitter is a Teacher's Best Tool

2011-11-19T04:13:00.000-06:00

The author of this blog post, Liz Dwyer, argues,

Twitter has simply become one of the best places for teachers to collaborate, share solutions to common classroom problems, and discuss education policy. In fact, it might just be the best forum teachers have ever had.

Do you agree with Liz's claim after having experienced Twitter for yourself first-hand?

Diigo Educator Accounts

2011-11-18T06:50:00.000-06:00

Diigo Educator Accounts are special premium accounts provided specifically to K-12 & higher-ed educators. Once your Diigo Educator application is approved, your account will be upgraded to have these additional features:

You can create student accounts for an entire class with just a few clicks (and student email addresses are optional for account creation)
Students of the same class are automatically set up as a Diigo group so they can start using all the benefits that a Diigo group provides, such as group bookmarks and annotations, and group forums.
Privacy settings of student accounts are pre-set so that only teachers and classmates can communicate with them.
Ads presented to student account users are limited to education-related sponsors.

Learn more >>

I've personally applied for my own educator account upgrade and I encourage anyone else with a Diigo account to do the same. In doing so, you'll be able to continue to use your Diigo account that you've already setup but you'll have additional teacher-only features that may be even more helpful to you and your students as you use Diigo in your teaching.

You can find me on Diigo at diigo.com/~jrhode and my Diigo library at diigo.com/user/jrhode

~ Dr. J

Screen Capture Software

2011-11-18T04:12:00.000-06:00

One of the powerful illustrative features of web-based communications is the ability to easily add various types of media to illustrate, explain, or describe. For your final project, you may want to include screen captures of a mock-up of the technology that you plan to incorporate into your learning community.

So, what are some easy ways to add screen shots to either online communications (like a blog post) or to other documents? There are many, MANY different ways in which to take screen shots. I'll share my favorites here, but I'd love to hear from others what are your favorites.

On my Windows machine, I personally use the free Howies' Quick Screen Capture software available as a free download from howiesfunware.com. Below I've included a screen shot I took of the software open on my PC desktop, along with the available preferences available.

So why do I use "Howie's" screen capture tool? A few reasons...

It's FREE
I can specify a bunch of preferences, such as shortcut "grab" key to press when I want to take a screen shot, file format, quality, location to save the file to, etc.
I can choose to either take a screen shot of my entire screen or just the active window

On my computer, I create a "Captures" folder and then have Howie's set to save all my screen shots to this folder so it doesn't clutter my desktop. Then, when I'm ready to add the images to either a blog post or some other online communication, I have all the images at my fingertips!

On my Mac, which is my preferred computer system, there are several, even easier ways to take screen captures. Mac OS X has a built-in keystroke shortcuts to take a screenshot of the entire screen (Command+Shift+3) or (Command+Shift+4) to have cross-hairs to select a specific location on the screen to capture. Here's a short video description of how to capture screen images using Mac OS X.

Once you have a screen shot captured, whether you do it on a Windows or Mac computer, you can then easily upload the image(s) to your blog and embed them in your blog posting.

If you're a Mac user and you're interested in going to the next level in you screen capture capabilities without spending $ for software, I'd recommend giving Skitch a try. Skitch is free Mac software bundled with a is a webservice that provides 1-click uploading of images for fast and fun image sharing. Here's a 3 minute video introduction to Skitch.

So there you have it...hopefully, you have a few more ideas regarding adding media to your blog posts. If you are already using screen capture software, what software tool(s) are you using and why? If you have questions about screen capture or posting different types of media to your blog, make sure to bring those questions to an upcoming synchronous class session.

The Changing Role of the Teacher in the 21st Century

2011-11-17T04:11:00.000-06:00

Here's a thought-provoking article I thought you'd enjoy on the changing role of the teacher in the 21st century:

http://teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/dr-brad-johnson-tammy-maxson-mcelroy/changing-role-of-the-teacher/

Do you agree with the points the authors make?

~ Dr. J

Groups vs. Networks

2011-11-16T04:04:00.000-06:00

Stephen Downes, one of the foremost elearning scholars today, was among the first to draw a distinction between groups and networks in online learning environments. He developed this diagram at a conference he was participating in to initially brainstorm his ideas and illustrate the contrasts between groups and networks in online learning environments.

Click here to view an enlarged version of the diagram.

Click here to view original diagram and comments.

Here's a short video explanation (8 min. 24 secs.) of the diagram.

As we consider learning communities and the use of technology to build learning communities, do you disagree with any of the categorizations of groups or networks that Downes has identified? Are there additional characteristics that you can think of that further distinguish groups from networks today that were omitted from the diagram and explanation? In what ways would a learning community in the form of a network be superior to the learning community in the form of a group? And, what advantages might groups have over networks?

Leave a comment with your thoughts!

Why I Tweet

2011-11-15T04:02:00.000-06:00

Twitter is one of the most popular microblogging communication tools today. When I first heard of Twitter back in 2007, I was skeptical at best and was among the many who claimed no need for such a tool. I even publicly declared in a conference presentation that I didn't see any future for Twitter. As it was initially designed to be simply a way to tell people "what I'm doing now" in 140 characters or less, I personally found little appeal to such a tool.

However, as Twitter has evolved and I've finally given Twitter a try, I must admit that I was absolutely wrong about Twitter and have found it to be an invaluable tool, both personally and professionally.

The creators of Twitter now describe this communication platform as,

Twitter is a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now. Twitter asks “what’s happening” and makes the answer spread across the globe to millions, immediately.

From an educational perspective, Twitter,

...is an online application that is part blog, part social networking site, and part cell phone/IM tool. It is designed to let users describe what they are doing or thinking at a given moment in 140 characters or less. As a tool for students and faculty to compare thoughts on a topic, Twitter could be used academically to foster interaction and support metacognition.

The act of posting to Twitter is referred to as tweeting. People certainly tweet for many different reasons, but here are a few of the reasons why I personally tweet.

Easier & quicker than blogging
Real-time access to what's happening
Ability to post from my cell phone simply by sending a text message
Informal learning networks abound!

I began a blog over 5 years ago as a way to simply keep track of resources I found online and share with others. I've since setup a personal blog for myself but only post occasionally to it when I have something that will take more than 140 characters to say. Otherwise, I find posting to Twitter much quicker and easier to network with others and it has become my preferred way for professional social networking.

To find more resources regarding Twitter, visit my Twitter bookmarks on Diigo.

Helpful Twitter Videos

2011-11-14T04:10:00.002-06:00

As we look forward to exploring the online community building possibilities of Twitter, here are links to a few helpful intro videos that my colleagues and I have recorded as part of a recent online webinar, "Using Twitter for Teaching, Learning and Professional Development in Higher Education." If you get the chance, please go ahead and watch these prior to our f2f class meeting this week. If everyone does so, we can spend more time in class discussing best practices and some advanced uses of Twitter rather than on the basics that are covered in these videos:

Reeder: My Preferred App for Google Reader

2011-11-10T04:09:00.000-06:00

By now, you should have subscribed to my blog and your fellow classmates blogs in Google Reader and be familiar with how to read and comment on blogs that you've subscribed to using the web interface of Google Reader.

Google Reader also does have a very nice mobile version of the web app that you can access on your mobile device of choice by navigating in the web browser on you mobile device to http://google.com/reader

I've been a long-time user of the mobile version of Google Reader, but now my preferred mode for checking my Google Reader is using the Reeder app on either iPhone/iPod Touch or iPad.

I won't get into all the reasons here why Reeder is my favorite, but I encourage you if you own an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad to give Reeder a try! The apps aren't free, but they have become some of the most valuable apps to me in terms of my own professional development and being able to easily keep up on news while on the go. You can find links to download the apps at reederapp.com

Do you use some other app for checking Google Reader? If so, please leave a comment and share your preferred RSS reader app!

~ Dr. J

Principals Call for Mobile and Social Technologies in Schools

2011-11-09T04:18:00.000-06:00

Do you agree with the NASSP in their recent position paper on on use of mobile technologies in schools, as described at http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/05/23/principals-call-for-mobile-and-social-technologies-in-schools.aspx? Why or why not?

~ Dr. J

Does technology alienate us from each other?

2011-11-08T15:36:00.000-06:00

I recently across the end of an interview on NPR with Sherry Turkle, who's founder and director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. She's written a book called Alone Together, about what she's observed in her research over the past 15 years.

She's neither for nor against technology; rather she's looking and listening to how our interactions with each other are changing based on technology. She's not opposed to anything--as she says in the interview, "If it's working for you, then great!" But she also documents how there is growing isolation in many places due to increasing reliance on computers where we previously interacted with humans.

The podcast is about three minutes long. Take a listen here: http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/01/25/tech-report-does-technology-alienate-us-from-each-other/

What are your thoughts after listening to her opinion? What steps do you personally take to make sure that your use of technology isn't having an adverse affect on your life?

~ Dr. J

Building Your Own PLN

2011-11-07T04:02:00.000-06:00

This short film is an introduction to the rather abstract but powerful idea emerging regarding using social media tools (web 2.0) to build personal learning networks. In this film, this teacher focuses on how he uses his personal learning network for teacher professional development but the same strategy could be applied to any form of learning. Teachers could have their students create their own personal learning networks for research projects and professionals can create their own for learning about their field or networking.

How are you building your personal learning network?