Forging ahead with confidence in a digital world

I write this only hours after two separate presentations this afternoon. The first was to my colleagues and administration at a staff meeting. The second was to the school board, district staff, which included the superintendent, director of education and the director of technology and human resources, as well as a gym full of teachers, union representatives and parents. I spoke with confidence, conviction and passion relaying the importance of using the technology and web 2.0 tools to move districts, schools and students forward in a digital age. Reflecting on the day, I can not help be amazed at how easily the right words came and how I was able to convey all the knowledge I had acquired over the past few months. Looking into the eyes of those in the audience I could see they were engaged and listening. They were learning.

It isn't about the technology.
It is about what the technology enables us to do. Learning the tools themselves is only a small part of the equation. I enjoy learning and playing with Web 2.0 tools. As Steve Hargadon notes in "Educational Networking: The important role Web 2.0 will play in education", Web 2.0 "plays to the strengths of educators - curiosity and love of learning". These tools provide low barrier entry points as they are easily accessible to everyone, free and user friendly. Exploring these online tools with a cohort provided insight into the differentiated learning we all experienced. Reading my colleagues blogs provided valuable information into the metacognitive aspect of teaching oneself a new tool and exploring its capabilities and implications on a personal and professional level. Some of us were more comfortable with technology and we pushed ourselves to explore further whether through voice, new and creative ways to use a tool or taking that tool directly into the classroom or workplace. For others, simply starting a blog and signing up for Facebook were firsts. Watching, for example, Lois' own journey into social networks and blogging has been a great learning experience for me. Her excitement, joy, amazement, frustrations and reflections enabled me to witness the learning from a new perspective that will help me when I introduce new tools to my own colleagues who have little hands on experience with Web 2.0.
Regardless of our starting points, we have all found our voices and shared our learning through our use of Web 2.0 and educational networking. Unlike many other online courses that utilize Blackboard for discussion, we have been able to use blogs to further share our individual interpretations of the tools, our feelings during the initial learning stages and the new knowledge we have acquired. Rather than simply having online discussions limited to text, our blogs have become an extension of our individual selves letting our personalities shine through with our developing use of voice, pictures, videos, podcasts and widgets. Brandi's blog was an excellent example of how humour and light heartedness can enliven any topic making it an entertaining, yet educational read. Rob's CNRG radio blog provided me with a fresh perspective on how many of these tools can be used with elementary students. Being immersed in a high school environment means most of our students are already comfortable using technology and learn these tools quickly. I was inspired by many of Rob's innovative ideas and demystifying using Gameboys and other technology with his students. Having an individual from outside the public school system in our class was an added bonus. Tom's blog posts illuminated me on the use of many of these tools in the medical imaging field as well as in his role as a teacher. He had some great ideas for how social network sites could help the government share important information and make their policies more transparent.
Regardless of our initial starting points, we were able to immerse ourselves in inquiry based learning. This experience will in itself benefit our own students when we take risks in our teaching and move away from delivering content to becoming a guide, mentor and facilitator in project based learning. John Dewey was a proponent of this type of learning as is evident in the following, "Education is not an affair of telling and being told but an active and constructive process" (Kuhlthau, Maniotes, Caspari, 2007). Our foray into Web 2.0 allowed us to investigate, explore, search, quest, research, pursue and study the various tools as well as connect these to our personal and professional lives (Kuhlthau, Maniotes, Caspari, 2007). As students, we were engaged in our learning because we were actively involved, not simply passive learners. This is important to note when introducing these tools to colleagues, students and even friends. They can not simply watch as you show them how the tools work and move the mouse around at alarmingly fast speeds. They must have the time and freedom to play with these tools, make mistakes without fear of repercussions and connect them with their own lives. During yesterday's presentation to staff I focused on wikis. A few of the teachers are ready to retire and feel there is little need to learn new tools at this stage of the game, and I quote, "If I was ten years younger, I would learn more about technology but I am at the end of my career." In order to engage those individuals I provided them with a reason to use a wiki in their personal lives that would allow them to connect the tool with their interests. They are passionate about hockey and spend a lot of time, energy and paper running a staff hockey pool. I explained how they could eliminate the paper and photocopying while making the information easier to access for everyone involved by using a wiki. Providing a connection between their outside experiences and their professional lives may encourage them to begin their own journeys in a digital environment. The same holds true for the students in our schools; providing them with learning opportunities that bridge their personal experiences and background knowledge with the task at hand sends a message that their lives are important and relevant. As students in EDES 501 we too had to connect our learning to previous knowledge and our personal lives by examining how these tools could be used in a variety of ways outside of our work, solidifying our learning.
As Carol Kuhlthau et al discuss in "Guided Inuiry, Learning in the 21st Century", guided inquiry has a solid foundation in the constructivist approach to learning where students learn through interaction with others, creating a dynamic social environment for learning. Web 2.0 is providing learners with the tools to facilitate guided inquiry and enhance social construction. By examining the inquiry process using the Focus on Inquiry document as a template it becomes apparent that Web 2.0 can be used to facilitate all stages in the inquiry model (p.20). Whether it be a brainstorming tool such as Mind Meister to identify or outline a plan for inquiry in the planning stage or using a social bookmarking tool such as Diigo to retrieve and process information, Web 2.0 can help to further engage students as well as increase their interaction with others helping them to reflect on the process. “What these tools can do is such a transformative complement to the research process that it’s irresponsible not to use them with students” (Foote, 2010). Using a blog or wiki to record the inquiry process provides an opportunity for the learner to have a central hub for resources, feedback, reflections as well as a real audience with which to share his/her work. Final projects and presentation can be created using virtual posters such as Glogster, or mashups utilizing social photo sharing and video sites. The range of tools available to create media rich products are unlimited and have low barriers allowing students to demonstrate their learning using a variety of literacies. These projects can be embedded into a school’s blog or website or even to a local online newspaper so students can make their learning meaningful and applicable to the real world.
It is an exciting time to be a student as educators begin to move from being the purveyors of content to mentors facilitating inquiry based learning. “Technology has initiated an overall shift in pedagogical emphasis from teaching to learning” (Hazari, North, Moreland, 2009). We are beginning to focus on helping our students create essential questions that examine real world problems. Just as problem solving in the real world involves multiple perspectives, we can not expect our students to work in isolation. Web 2.0 provides us with the ability to connect and collaborate with others and it is this social interaction that will increase student empowerment, relevancy and learning. Using the tools of social networking and content creation that our students are so familiar with outside of the classroom will not only teach them how to harness the power of Web 2.o for knowledge acquisition and sharing, it will show them that we value their experiences and recognize their value in education.
It is also an exciting time to be an educator. These tools are creating radical change in all aspects of our lives, and although the field of education is slower to adopt these new developments, we are beginning to witness educational institutions adopt technology, not simply for technology’s sake but for the deep learning opportunities it provides. “This new web is going to dramatically alter the 21st century landscape in education, shaping how students approach learning, how educators approach teaching, and, increasingly, how educators are interacting with, and learning, from each other” (Hargadon). It is the last part of this statement that holds a real connection for me in terms of what I will take away from this learning experience. Over the course of the term I have developed a personal learning network (PLN) that provides me with invaluable professional development that I can access 24/7. I have established a social network of teacher-librarians, administrators, educational lecturers, scholars, and teachers who are passionate about education and eager to push the current boundaries of traditional education settings to encourage others to see the necessity of technology in teaching practices and allowing students to build upon their outside knowledge. My PLN will allow me to continue the learning I started in this course and enable me to connect and collaborate with others in order to continue my journey of sharing my knowledge with my colleagues, administrators, district staff and students.
Although I am proud my learning from this course has transferred over to some of my colleagues, who have taken risks by setting up wikis and delving into inquiry based projects, there is much work to be done. I must bear in mind that not everyone is as ready to adopt change as I am. Buffy Hamilton, in her presentation ‘Pivot points for change: connecting the dots of information literacy with social media’, says it best, “Don’t reinvent the wheel. Find pivot points for change.” Teachers can still use their traditional tools and methods but begin to include new tools such as blogs to help students reflect. Maybe it is because libraries are in the business of change, reflecting the dynamic nature of our world, that I have eagerly embraced Web 2.o and see the ability for technology to invite, encourage participation, spark meaningful conversations and help construct and create knowledge. Marc Prensky recently wrote an article, “H. Sapiens Digital: From Digital Immigrants and Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom” (2010), in which he explains that due to our digital environment we must teach and learn digital wisdom. We are increasingly using technology to store information, access more information, while contributing and collaborating in order to analyze and synthesize knowledge. Prensky argues that the divide between digital immigrants and digital natives will become less relevant, as the need to gain digital wisdom increases. In other words, we must learn how to use technology to enhance our learning and communication. “Digital wisdom means not just manipulating technology easily, or even creatively; it means making wiser decisions because one is enhanced by technology”(Prensky, 2010). This is why it is so important we begin to use these tools with our students now. We need to provide them with the ability to become digitally wise.
My presentations yesterday were the beginning of my journey to facilitate learning of Web 2.o amongst my colleagues, in my own school and across the district. Having just had a conversation with the Director of Human Resources and Technology, it is apparent we are on the same page. With the district’s approval I am planning to facilitate several Web 2.0 workshops, the first on setting up a PLN using RSS aggregators and Twitter. In addition, I have submitted a proposal to create a Web 2.0 course for students to take online in our district. It will have a similar structure as EDES 501, based on inquiry learning, but geared towards younger students. These are steps that will help move us towards the big shift in education that Will Richardson addresses at the end of his book, “Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and other powerful web tools for the classroom”. With open content, 24/7 learning, access to experts in many fields, and an overwhelming amount of information it is imperative we provide students with ability to know where to find information, how to contribute meaningfully to the repository of knowledge, as well as be critical consumers of information. Who knows what our traditional education system will look like five or ten years down the road. Preparing for and accepting change will provide educators and students with the ability to adapt and thrive in future environments.



Foote, C.. (2010, March). Empowering Students for Life. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, 17(2), 29-31. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1981674901).

Hazari, S., North, A., & Moreland, D.. (2009). Investigating Pedagogical Value of Wiki Technology. Journal of Information Systems Education, 20(2), 187-198. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1755224781).

Kuhlthau, C, Maniotes, L, & Caspari, A. (2007). Guided inquiry: learning in the 21st century. Westport, CONN: Libraries Unlimited.

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis,podcasts, and other powerful web tools for the classrom. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

Teach. Learn. Play. Creating community through blogging.

Communities grow strong as we teach each other, learn together and engage in play. Sharing passions, ideas and questioning assumptions creates a rich environment that fosters continued engagement and curiosity. As an inhabitant of a small mountain town I see proof of this daily. Rosslanders rally around important issues, educate one another about pros and cons, debate, seek solutions to problems and most importantly value the importance of play. When it dumps snow, everyone heads for the hills. The need for a balance between work and play dates back to the founding fathers of Rossland who came together for their first race down Red Mountain back in 1896. We continue to teach, learn and play always remaining a tight knit community with open arms.

So how do we foster this concept of creating strong communities in our personal lives, professional realms and our digital environments? Blogging seems to be the answer. Weblogs, or blogs as they are more commonly known, are collections of reflections and conversations with links and questions that ask readers to respond (Richardson). Moreover, blogs create a strong sense of community as readers/writers 'form rich connections with one another and the content and - because of the reflection and sharing - find great relevance in the material' (EDUCAUSE). The sense of play in blogs emerges when the blogger finds his/her voice, creating the confidence to engage with thoughts of others and entertain new ideas.

1. Reflections on learning the tool
In October 2008, I attended my first British Columbia Teacher Librarian Association (BCTLA) conference in Victoria, BC. Not only was I a conference newbie but I had only been in the position of TL for two months, previously having been a classroom teacher of most subjects under the sun. With the signed promise I would start a Master's program in Teacher Librarianship I was bestowed the honour of TL. I was hoping the conference would provide me with a better idea of what a TL did and a starting point for my own learning. Looking through the conference brochure I was attracted to a workshop on blogging, another discussing technology in the classroom given by Jennifer Branch and finally one on graphic novels. I hadn't met Jennifer but had only recently submitted my application to U of A for the DLTL program and thought I might get the chance to introduce myself. The blogging workshop was my first introduction to the tool and I was immediately hooked. The presenters were two young teachers who had been using blogs in Social Studies and Communications, as well as the library. I saw evidence of continued dialogue between students outside of the classroom, videos they created and uploaded, as well as posts by students focusing on their particular interests in current events. The presenters discussed privacy issues and settings on blogs to only allow students to comment and how a teacher could monitor comments prior to posting them. They even provided an assessment rubric for blogs. I left the session feeling prepared to start my own journey with blogs. But I can still hear Jennifer's voice from the back of the room, she was a participant in the session, saying "Blogging is dead". Oh no, here's this exciting tool that is completely new to me and it's already dead?
I have my doubts that Jennifer would still argue blogging is dead considering the proliferation of high quality educational blogs. Walt Crawford, a director and managing editor at LYRASIS leadership network conducted his own study on blogs that found 'in 2009, the silly claim that "blogging is dead" seemed to have increased'. His findings reveal that although there are less blogs the possible reason for this was the growing use of Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed for communication that had previously been short blog posts. For me, these tools are simply leads to the bigger conversations and ideas that center around blogs.
I was not to be the death of blogging and immediately returned to work and set up my first blog with blogger. I choose blogger as it had been recommended in the workshop as one of the easiest to navigate and it was simple to get started. My first blog was Rossland Secondary Library and my initial post was Michael Wesch's video "A Vision of Students Today" which upon reflection was quite appropriate. I don't know what I thought would happen: students would watch it in awe and the comments and discussion would grow like wild fire; they would be so engaged as to show it to their parents; links and other resources would pour in and the blog would take off. Well none of that happened and it could be due to the fact that I hadn't realized the filters, at the time, blocked Youtube so nobody saw more than a black screen. The blog grew as a place to upload covers of new books and reviews, post student work, link to interesting articles, profile student fundraisers and awareness campaigns. It became a library website and I continue to update it regularly and once in awhile there is a comment or two but not to the extent Will Richardson describes as real or complex blogging.
Learning to post pictures and videos, add links and create a personalized blog was all very simple. I navigated the settings so that I can moderate comments before they are posted and quickly found that I could add 'gadgets' to my page. Only recently did I learn that you can use a trackback function in the settings to be notified if one of your posts has been referenced by another blog, which can allow you to monitor the popluarity of a post. Recently blogger notified me that they had created new templates as part of their new draft.blogger and so I changed the look and feel of the blog. The one downfall to changing the template is that the particular one I choose takes quite awhile to load. Although I like the look I may need to use a simpler templated to improve the loading time. Over the past few months I have added other widgets that I have learned about from this course, all making it a more personalized space that allows students, educators and parents to access resources. The blog contains links to many other sites, additional blogs I follow, polls, videos, links to classroom wikis and student work. In addition, I will create posts on collaborative units in which I am involved so students can access trailfire links or a pathfinder I have created through pageflakes. It has become an indispensable tool for me to link the library with the school and the community.
The real learning that has occured for me since the beginning of this course is the use of a feed reader. Using the RSS aggregator Google Reader has truly revolutionized the manner in which I use blogs for professional development as well as helping me manage online reading. I knew what RSS was but had never before set up a feed reader, nor subscribed to any blogs. I had a few favorites bookmarked but wouldn't read them on a regular basis. The logistics of establishing a Google Reader were simple as I already have a Goolge account and used blogger. The benefit of being provided with a good list of educational blogs to follow was key in the overall success of learning about the tool. The 'blogosphere' functions on linking, commenting and feedback so ideas spread quickly. "Being referenced by a popular blogger brings instant attention and often credibility, and repeated linking enhances the reputation and authority of a blogger. Through this system of recommendations and referrals, a collaborative filtering capacity has emerged in the blogosphere" (EDUCAUSE). I quickly added other blogs to follow that had been referenced in the blogs I was subscribing to. I currently subscribe to 54 blogs, the majority for professional purposes but do have a few skiing related ones along with the Canadian Avalanche Society bulletins. As Google Reader provides the latest posts from each blog it is easy to scan the titles and the first few lines to see if you are interested in further reading. Starring and sharing articles has been useful as I will often want to go back to particular posts when I have more time or share them with colleagues and administration. "With feed reader, learning from edubloggers goes from a frustrating search through thousands of links to quickly browsing the thoughts and ideas of trusted writers" (Ferriter). RSS feed readers and a list of professional educational blogs will be part of the session I run for district staff on creating a professional learning network. My colleagues, for the most part, are as unaware as I was a few months back about the opportunities provided by technology for continued professional development through engaging with others online through web 2.0 tools.

2. Discussion of the tool in terms of personal learning
I began this post with the idea that blogs can foster community growth by teaching, learning and playing together. Like most school districts in British Columbia, SD 20 is facing cuts, school closures and layoffs. With declining enrollment and an already small community, discussions have been centered around either closing the elementary school (K-5) and amalgamating with the high school or closing the high school (6 - 12) and busing our students to the next town. In a tight knit community such as Rossland, with a distinct history and population, it is very important to keep our kids here where they can walk to school, go home for lunch and see their teachers out in the community. As a parent to two young children this is a very important issue and I want to know what is going on and how to become part of the solution. The Visions for Small Schools Committee has recently established a blog in order to keep everyone informed and as a forum for debate, discussion and questions. I have subscribed to the blog and will help move the discussions forward by commenting and linking to research I have done as well as to other blogs. "The greatest merit of blogs is that the members of a community can exchange thoughts on a public channel" (Wang, Hsua). Face to face meetings have been held but blogs enable people to reflect and think about what they want to say rather than letting emotions take over as so often happens in public forums when discussing issues close to the heart.
Blogs can also be a perfect medium for sharing your thoughts and experiences. As friends excitedly plan their year abroad with their two children discussion has come up as to the best way to document and allow others to partake virtually in their journey. Having spent the better part of the last three months discovering web 2.0 tools I suggested blogger as the answer. It doesn't have to be hosted on a separate server with fees; it can be easily accessed everywhere (maybe not China anymore); videos and photos can be added in no time; and it is a chronological record of their year that can be added to by their children, commented on by friends and family and shared with colleagues. I too will use this tool when we decide the time is right to pack all our things into storage, take a year's leave of absence and travel the world. Until then, I will continue blogging for professional reasons through this blog. I do not have the time to have a personal blog at the moment as blogs must be updated on a regular basis to encourage responses and readership. I have come to enjoy the process of writing in a public forum and hope to find a personal reason to write in a less academic way when I have the time. I thoroughly enjoy following the recreational blogs of friends who continue to post about their adventures in the mountains, on land and at sea. I can live vicariously through their playfulness.

3. Discussion of the tool in terms of professional learning.
When I read Will Richardson's book, 'Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms' I became aware of the true power of blogging. What I had been doing with the library blog was not actually blogging but simply creating a website in the form of a blog. Nothing wrong with that but it wasn't tapping in to the powerful learning and thinking that blogging can foster. According to Richardson, "links with anaylysis and synthesis that articulate a deeper understanding or relationship of the content being linked and written with potential audience response in mind" is real blogging. This type of blogging promotes critical and analytical thinking skills as the blogger is reflecting on what he/she has read from a variety of sources, synthesized these ideas and come to new conlcusions, all with the audience in mind to encourage a discussion to be started. Furthermore, complex blogging, according to Richardson involves extending the analysis and synthesis over a long period of time to build upon posts, links and comments. Inherent in this type of blogging are critical reading skills, as the individual looks for important ideas to write about. Having to write blog posts on each of the web 2.o tools for this class has led me to this type of real blogging. My personal experiences are included, letting my audience get to know me and what I think about professional topics providing the blog with a more distinctive voice and feel.
This process did not happen overnight. My first posts discussed my own learning and how I could transfer that learning to my personal and professional realms. As I began to read articles and books on the tools and their uses in education, my own ideas were reinforced and were expanded upon. This read/write/think/link that Richardson discusses creates that community of learners or an affinity space. Not only am I linking back to blog posts I have read through Google Reader, I am part of a forum for social constructivist learning. "According to social constructivism theory, knowledge is generated through social intercourse, and through this interaction, we gradually accumulate advances in our levels of knowing" (Kanjika & Anderson, 1998). Although, the discussion around my own blog is relatively minimal, consisting of my professor and classmates, I am actively commenting, questionning, and seeking dialogue through many of the blogs I read. I have connected with individuals and shared ideas and documents to further discussion. One blog in particular, written by Brian Kuhn a technology director for the Maple Ridge school district, has led me into worthwhile discussion around creating flexible schedules in the highschool and examining blended learning environments. Not only is it somewhat humourous we share the same last name, but it is serendipitous that we share similar ideas about the role technology plays in creating a new model for education. My learning becomes more meaningful when I am "able to exchange ideas and to negotiate meanings with ... peers in a social learning environment" (Jonasssen & Reeves).In addition, I contribute to the discussions on the BCTLA Forum, which is a type of blog focusing on more of a discussion framework. Through these interactions I have been introduced to new ideas, pushed my own thinking and revisited previously held assumptions, all the while being connected to a community of engaged educators.

My RSS feed reader and the blogs I subscribe to are part of my personal learning network that provides me with professional development on a continuous basis. Richard Elmolre, professor of educational leadership at Harvard notes, "there are few portals through which new knowledge about teaching and learning can enter" (Ferriter). Blogs have created this portal and there has been a new interest in communities of professional collaborative knowledge. This forum pushes educators in their own thinking through the comments and questions of others, as well as links, bringing a transparency to the practice of teaching. Never would I have been engaged on such a level with educators from around the world in such interesting conversations. In addition, blogging has made it possible for me to express my own ideas as a teacher and leader within my community and abroad. It has allowed me to find my voice and share my ideas with others. Not only have I published my blog link in school newsletters and on the library blog, but have included it on various social network sites for professional use and sent the link to the superintendent, director of education, and the technology team in the district. I want to engage in dialogue with these individuals while providing them with links and research to further their understanding of the role of technology in education.

All of these skills - critical and analytical thinking, finding your voice, and synthesizing knowledge to produce new ideas - are essential for students to succeed in the world today and the workplaces of tomorrow. Lisa Zawilinski proposes that "blogging is an easy way to begin preparing elementary students for the new literacies of the internet". Blogs broaden the audience for student writing and thinking, while providing a collaborative atmosphere for discussion that does not always occur with all students in a classroom. Blogging "can serve as a strong equalizer that enables participants to raise their comfort levels regarding expressions of different perspectives" (Wang & Hsua). As students seek answers to their question, as well as solutions, they read different types of text, evaluate the information, synthesize their findings and communicate them to a broader audience. These skills emphasis 'higher order thinking' skills, that Zawilinski cleverly terms HOT blogging. HOT blogging requires "students to negotiate among multiple perspectives" and it is this teamwork that is necessary in our digital environment and global economy.

Blogging in the classroom can take a variety of forms from literature blogs based on a novel or a work of non-fiction to math and science blogs that introduce new topics and background information. Will Richardson does an excellent job of showcasing various blogs used in the classroom across the curriculum. What is important to keep in mind when introducing blogs to students is creating a comfort level with the technology through introductory hands on workshops; discussing netiquette and privacy online; and providing examples of good blogs and appropriate comments and feedback to the writers. Students need to be encouraged to read and respond to what others have written creating a community of learners who teach, learn and play together.

Non-linked sources
Crawford, W.. (2010, March). But Still They Blog. Online, 34(2), 58-60. Retrieved April 6, 2010, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1980426861).

Wang, S., & Hsua, H.. (2008). Reflections on Using Blogs to Expand In-class Discussion. TechTrends, 52(3), 81-85. Retrieved April 6, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1607549361).

Jonassen, D. H. & Reeves, T. C. (1996). Learning with technology: Using computers as cognitive tools. In Jonassen, D. H. (Ed.) Handbook of Research for Educational Communications and Technology (pp. 693-720). New York: Macmillan Press.

Kanuka, H. & Anderson, T. (1998). Online social interchange, discord, and knowledge construction. Journal of Distance Education, 13(1).

Bringing it all home with Twitter

Your personal and professional online profile is growing out of control: Facebook status updates, new posts to your various blogs, uploads to your YouTube account, photos on Flickr, screencasts for students, additional bookmarks on diigo and you're loosing control of how to disseminate all that information so everyone is aware of what's going on in your web 2.0 world. The 140 word microblogging tool, Twitter, could be the answer. Twitter's humble roots as a simple udate tool answering the question 'What are you doing?' have morphed into a sophisticated marketing tool, communication platform, resource base and personal learning network (PLN).

1. Reflections on learning about the tool
"What's Twitter?" asked a colleague who was viewing a power point by Ross Todd on Web 2.0 tools.
"Oh, it's a web 2.0 tool that limits you to 140 characters with each Tweet. I don't use it. I don't have time for yet another thing," I replied.
I can't actually believe I said that. Not having even tried Twitter, I had dismissed it as something that would take up more time and provide no return. I have since learned you can't write something off until you've tried it. My original perception was that Twitter was used similarly to social network sites and used to continuously inform other tweeters what you were doing. Facebook was already a guilty pleasure I was using to keep posted on friends and family. Still, I started by searching other people on Twitter to see what was going on. A big name in mountain biking is Steve Peat, a British rider who finally won the World Cup after eleven years of being at the top but never taking the gold at that specific event. His tweets focused on training rides, dirt biking, back and forth tweets with other famous riders and updates on going to the pub to drink his favorite beer, Stella. I felt like I was spying and privy to conversations that were none of my business. Like many who have only heard of Twitter the negative comments focus on three things:
"Twitter takes too much time, the content is of questionable value and it promotes social (or, anti-social) myopic-ness" (Dunlap and Lowenthal). Web 2.0 is shrinking the world but can often contribute to a self-centered focus that looses touch with the important issues in our communities and around the globe. Twitter would only emphasize individuals' obsession with themselves. No thanks.
A few months later, I signed up for a Twitter account (@nicolakuhn) to experience microblogging first hand, use it on a regular basis for three months and make an informed decision - to Twitter or not to Twitter? The initial sign up was easy but I quickly discovered I didn't know how Twitter worked. What did @userid mean? Was that a reply to the original tweet or was that an answer to another tweet? Was the tweet directed to someone else but came from the @userid person? Ok, so I realized if a post had @userid it was a reply to someone. What about the tiny.url or bit.ly? And then there's the #(hashtags)? Could I figure out this cryptic code to make sense of any tweets? Finding people to follow on Twitter was made easy with recommendations by Joanne to create a PLN focusing on educators using technology in education. Joanne Dunlap and Patrick Lowenthal in Horton Hears a Tweet suggest that if educators use Twitter in the classroom it is important to provide students "with a list of professionals who are active, relevant contributors" in order to share and model professional ways to communicate and engage with the Twitter community. These contacts were a great start and from my initial list I was able to find others I wanted to follow and add to my PLN. Unlike other SNS, Twitter allows for 'asymmetric relationships' where I can follow someone without them approving me as a 'follower' or having them follow me. A positive to this type of relationship is that if we are to use it with students we are not intruding on their personal networking space.
With a 140 character limit you might think tweets would be complete with their own short hand codes that could take years to learn. At least in my PLN that isn't the case and the English language hasn't been corrupted too much. I discovered why all the links started with tiny.url or bit.ly and now use them myself to shorten url addresses to embed on my blog, wikis and in my tweets. In addition, I read up on hashtags and followed a few. The hashtag #teachertuesday is great as educators use it to recommend interesting applications, resources, schools, teachers or anything of interest to other educators on Twitter. Although many of the best posts are retweeting ad nauseum. I was starting to feel more comfortable with Twitter and tweeted a few times with some rather paltry updates. Then I began to check my Twitter account regularly and saw the light, so to speak. The people in my PLN weren't, for the most part (@sabram), providing updates to what they were eating, what airport they were sitting in (Gowalla) or where they were going but linking to excellent resources in terms of journal articles, blogs, news or websites that would allow me to further develop my professional practice. An inital check to my Twitter account and a few hours later I would emerge from the computer having read some very useful articles and blogs regarding education and the role of technology.
Further reading led me to the APIs developed to accompany Twitter and increase its functionality. In essence, you can link your Twitter account to inform everyone of new posts to your blog, updates on Facebook, videos on Youtube, recent uploads to flickr, create polls and screencasts. I managed to get a feed for my blogs and new posts automatically get posted on Twitter. Not only that but you can use an app like Hootesuit to post tweets while you are away on vacation or busy at work. The screen cast below highlights a few of the apps you can use with your Twitter account. This took mere minutes to create and was uploaded to my Twitter account instantly.
http://screenr.com/YTM

2. Discussion of the tool in terms of personal learning

So it might be obvious by now that I don't have much interest in using Twitter to keep constant tabs on friends and family. I don't want to spend all my time on a computer and my FB account provides me with enough information that I don't forsee using Twitter for personal reasons as much as for professional purposes. In his discussion of Twitter as a personal learning tool Steve at Anecdote notes,
"It's a mistake to think Twitter is only for reporting the minute detail of one's life, which by the way is an important activity because it helps up create stronger social bonds. Twitter is also effective for asking questions and getting answers, sharing useful links on the web and getting those frustrations out when things are driving you nuts."
I do enjoy following some of my favorite athletes on Twitter and viewing their photos, training schedules and highlights of races. It is inspiring and motivates me to train and participate in races as well. I have created my twitter mountain bike list consisting of Steve Peat, Rachel Atherton and Brian Lopes. In addition, I get daily tweets from the Dalai Lamai (ok, not really him but from his books) and have found some great author sites for children's literature as well as an author podcast (@AuthorPodcasts) tweet with links to author's reading their works. Twitter also serves another very useful purpose as a marketing tool as can be attested to by its adoption in the corporate world. If you want to promote your product or answer customer inquiries Twitter comes in handy. Helping my husband promote his newest 'off-the-side-of-his-desk' venture, PerformX mountain biking, a rider develoment training team, Twitter will be our amalgamating tool. The FB page is up and running, newest race and rider videos are being created, as well as photos and press releases all of which can be connected to a Twitter account. One of the team riders has his own blog which can also be linked. In conjunction with using Twitter as a marketing tool, making your clients feel part of a community, you can use apps such as Favstar to bit.ly to shorten and track hits on particular links that have been favorited. Twitoaster produces charts and stats showing what tweets got replies and how many have been retweeted. Twitter can also help with market research by polling clients and perspective customers. What about tracking others in a similar niche areas? As you watch your following grow you'll soon be connecting to others in the industry and keep abreast of what they are doing. Twitter can also be a tool to help with branding, creating awareness, trust and loyalty. If your tweets are informative and engaging, rather than shameless promotion, your following will grow. What PerformX needs to be a successful company is riders willing to invest in this development program to become competitors on the world mountain biking circuit. With the promotion of the current riders on the team through blogs, videos, photos all linked throughTwitter updates, PerformX will prove itself as a successful company whose riders reach the podium.

Twitter also has its place to quickly update friends and family to your where abouts and making times to meet, for example '7pm tonight at our house for a potluck' saves time phoning everyone. In addition, you could use it to ask for advice, 'My son won't stop wetting the bed. What tricks do you have?" or provide an opinion on the newest restaurant in town. How about an alert for the latest traffic snarl on your city's streets? There are also groups on Twitter to help you stop smoking or find the best recipe for tonight's dinner. You can simply use it to get the latest updates on your favorite celebs and save thousands not buying 'People' magazine. For now, I will continue to use it for professional purposes but will admit that now I am following people I admire I may be checking it more often.

3. Discussion of the tool in terms of professional learning

Twitter has become an indespensible tool for my own professional development. Links to journals, blogs, papers and hashtags for #edchat and #teachertuesday have connected me with engaged educators around North America to establish my own personal learning network. As educators we are aware that learning takes place in a social context. "Conversation, collaboration, and establishing a community of learners is critical to the teaching and learning process" (Dunlap and Lowenthal). Social networking tools like Twitter are an easy way to question, answer, and connect with other like minded individuals. Based on the tweets from those in my PLN there is a focus on library advocacy, inquiry based learning, teaching to the individual student's learning needs, and conversations centering around the shift in education and the integration of technology. As I became more comfortable tweeting I linked editorials on the need for librarians, the shift in education as well as answering questions others asked about using technology in my own practice. Like SNSs for educators, Classroom 2.0 and LearnCentral, Twitter provides continued professional development. "Digital media have accelerated the pace of scholarly communication" (Jennifer Howard). No longer are educators relying on a monthly or yearly professional journal or the annual conference to connect, collaborate and discuss important issues in education. Due to its 140 character limit Twitter isn't the venue for indepth and meaningful dialogue but works as a notification tool providing direction to those conversations. It allows us to create universally accessible knowledge.

Using Twitter in the classroom can be a valuable tool in "promoting those metacognitive skills that enable us to monitor our own learning" (Cookson Jr., PeterW.,). When we learn through asking essential questions and debating possible solutions to problems we are engaging our higher order cognitive skills. Technology is allowing us to create teams working collaboratively to solve problems and find solutions. "Twitter may have utility in helping students communicate, stay organized, and learn research and analytical skills" (Manzo, Kennedy). Imagine assigning a TweepML, a third party site allowing students to automatically follow each other, to groups of students working on collaborative assignments. They could ask questions, solve problems and share useful links with one another in a fast and transparent forum. In addition, they may be able to contact experts in the field of study on Twitter and ask them questions directly. NASA astornauts have their own Twitter feed with updates on missions and their work. Just reading a few of their tweets is a fascinating glimpse into the reality of being an astronaut.

There are numerous ways to use Twitter in the classroom and the power point '29 Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom' by Tom Barrett (@tombarrrett) has some fantastic ideas. Twitter can be used for creating collaborative short stories; creating historical character tweets; twittering as the protagonist of a novel; connecting with experts; tweets about finding math in your surroundings; and tweeting current events. I began following a professor (http://twitter.com/rels1101) who posts tweets to news stories centering on religions around the world and I've been led to some fascinating articles. Limiting students to 140 characters really forces them to think critically about how they want to express themselves. One of the most compelling reasons to try using web 2.0 tools like Twitter is to engage students, especially in online courses. I teach English 11 and 12 online and am responsible for course development for Socials 10 and 11 for over 65 school districts in British Columbia. Currently, many of the courses are text based, relying heavily on a question and answer format. They are not engaging and I will be the first to admit it. The potential for online learning is great but a lot of work still needs to be done. Reading about how technology can increase student engagement and help create social presence in online courses is of great interest to me as a teacher. "Encouraging student-faculty contact and interaction thus gets at the heart of student engagement in online education settings" (Dunlap and Lowenthal). Twitter allows for immediate, free -flowing communication between students, and students and teachers. Working in Moodle, there is a time delay by posting through the discussion forums or email. The immediate questions and feedback provided by Twitter supports efforts to engage students in online educational settings. In addition, we are helping our students connect to experts in fields of study and establish themselves as contributors not simply consumers of information and resources. We are teaching them relevant ways to communicate to establish an appropriate digital footprint they won't want to hide in the future.

During our district professional development day in April, I will be presenting on Web 2.0 tools and their role in education. I have been thinking about which tools most benefit educators in their professional development and which ones most benefit students when used in the classroom. I believe that introducing the little known, and often negatively viewed, Twitter to educators for their own professional development will be most beneficial. When educators begin to see the value in connecting with other like minded educators they will then realize the benefit to their students. But as I mentioned at the beginning of this post you can't really get a true idea of what Twitter is all about unless you sign up and take part. Patrick Larkin, a principal in Burlington, MA used Twitter to run a monthly professional development meeting. All staff signed up for a Twitter account, used Twtpoll to choose a discussion question for the day and TweepML as their discussion forum. He found that staff were more willing to offer up questions, discussion topics and opinions then they would have been in a regular staff meeting (Demski, 2010). Larkin says, "I was hoping that teachers would see this as relevant to the classroom; by using Twitter they might get great feedback from a student who would never say anything." When setting up colleagues with Twitter accounts I will be sure to establish relevance for them, recommend people to follow, model effective use of the tool and encourage them to participate and contribute for a month to see the benefits.

If you haven't been to a conference lately you may not be familiar with backchannel communication but you can be sure it will be present at the next national or international gathering of educators. Essentially, backchannel conversation takes place at the same time as a conference session or key note speaker. You'll be hard pressed not to notice attendees texting on their cell phones or Blackberries, maybe pulling up their twitter page on a laptop to participate in the backchannel. For the most part, the audience is posting questions about the session, looking for clarification or further information all using a hashtag. The benefits are several: the speaker can often be guided by questions, usually up on a huge screen for everyone to see; those not in attendance can participate; those to shy to ask questions in front of a large audience will get their voice heard; and it provides a real time parellel conversation during the presentation. "Background discussions have always been a component of classes, conferences, and presentations" (Educause) and the technology is simply bringing it to the fore front and can be included in the learning process. Backchanneling has become increasingly popular in university and college lecture halls allowing students to have their voices heard in a less intimidating manner. Students can even review group tweet sessions after the class is over. The downside to backchanneling is the 'tweckle' - abuse the speaker only to Twitter followers in the audience while he/she is speaking. Some conferences provide a Twitter etiquette lesson before sessions as there have been occasions where the backchannel has quickly taken over as the front channel. Twitter does have the potential "foster engagement and participation, especially in large classes" or conferences (EDUCAUSE). Teachers will have to give up some control if they wish to try and use backchanneling to engage students and assess student understanding but it may allow learners to participate in true discourse and reflect on their own learning.

As with all Web 2.0 tools, "if Twitter participation is initiated by a learning need and subsequently driven by learning goals and objectives, then the activity is relevant and purposeful, and Twitter time is time well spent" (Dunlap and Lowenthal). Twitter can open the lines of communication to connect, share, contribute and participate in learning for all students. We need to remember that as important as it is to teach students 21st century skills, the medium of Web 2.0 is not enough. We must focus on teaching them how to create knowledge worth tweeting about.

Non-linked sources

Jennifer Howard. (2010, January). The MLA Convention Meets Twitter: Twitter moves scholarly communication beyond annual meeting's sessions and papers. The Chronicle of Higher Education,***[insert pages]***. Retrieved March 29, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1953748551).

Cookson Jr., Peter W. (2009, Sept.). Educational Leadership, Vol. 67 Issue 1, p8-14

Demski, Jennifer (2010, February). T H E Jounal, Vol.37 Issue 2, p16-18

Manzo, Kathleen Kennedy (2009, October). Education Week, Vol. 29 Issue8, p1-14.

Rethlefsen, Melissa L. (2009, October). Library Journal, Vol. 134 Issue 17, p18-20

No need to knock, my door's wide open: Facebook and social networks

It's not unusual to have friends drop by unannounced and poke their heads in the front door to see if we're home. Living in a small community with virtually no crime it shouldn't be too shocking to know we don't always lock our door -the real fear is a bear getting in. Move to the big city and this situation looks much different. Unfamiliar neighbours, strangers and the odd vagrant looking for shelter and the trust factor diminishes. Doors get locked even when you are in the house. You wouldn't risk leaving your home wide open to strangers so why do it in a virtual world? With the continued popularity of social network sites (SNSs) an increasing number of individuals are displaying their most personal information for all the world to see, whether they realize it or not. SNSs like Facebook are useful and engaging Web 2.0 tools and with some education, users will be able to better protect their privacy, online reputations and harness the power of social networks for personal and professional purposes.


1. Reflections on the process of learning about the tool



Just searching Facebook (FB) to see if they had a 'member since' tab - no luck. If memory serves me right it was sometime in 2007 when I first heard a friend talk about how she recently managed to find out through FB what all her old high school counterparts were up to. Made her feel better about herself. I was curious and signed up. My profile was slim and I didn't spend a lot of time uploading photos or searching out 'offline' acquaintances. Never mind even briefly contemplating privacy settings; it didn't occur to me. At the time I couldn't see how it would be of any use, save for a bit of catching up with people I hadn't taken the time to stay in touch with. High school was fun but I had moved on. Then people started to find me. It was quite amazing: friends from when I lived in Bella Coola, college roomates, cousins and yes, old high school acquaintences. And then came the former students. I admit I 'friended' a few who had graduated five years ago and I didn't have anything on my profile I wasn't willing to share with the masses. Since then, many have been deleted from my profile as my network grew to reflect friends and family. Overtime, my friends on FB have grown but have remained those individuals who really are friends and not students, nor for the most part anyone I associate with professionally. FB remains a part of my personal life: I can share family photos; status updates that have nothing to do with work and can verge on the mundane; see and hear what my friends are doing even though we live in the same community; and not worry about maintaining a 'professional' prescence on my FB site. This is not to say I post anything I would be concerned about parents, administrators or students viewing but I like to keep my personal life removed by certain degrees.


SNSs have also been established for professional purposes and many educators have joined Nings such as The Global Education Collaborative, Classroom 2.0 and LearnCentral. Joining nings and SNSs for professional purposes is similar to FB but it is important to complete your profile in detail to increase relevant groups, members, discussions and resources. I have accounts with all the above mentioned SNSs but find the most dynamic to be Classroom 2.0, started by Steve Hargadon who is also responsible for LearnCentral, part of Elluminate. Classroom 2.0 sends frequent emails detailing online PD sessions, guest speakers and group meetings all facilitated on Elluminate. The home page provides snapshots of the latest user comments and discussion threads so it is easy to see the latest activity, much like FB. Sidebars highlight upcoming events, recorded sessions, links, forums and groups. Classroom 2.0 is a ning dedicated to those interested in Web 2.0 and social media in education. Users of this network site are frequently adding comments, pushing the dialogue forward, creating links, suggesting online meetings and working groups. Hargadon (2010) states that "the creativity, the willingness to reach out for help, the deisre to share...are awe-insipiring, and they are in large part the basis for my belief that educational networking is the face of the future."


LearnCentral is similar to Classroom 2.0 but it has the additional feature of your own vroom, a three person virtual meeting room through Elluminate, and a portfolio where you can upload documents such as lesson plans or PDFs to be saved where they can be accessed from anywhere, essentially a content filing system for educators to share with others if so desired. In the LearnCentral discussion forum on social networking a post had been started concerning the lack of activity on the site despite the numbers of users who had signed up with the SNS. Facilitator Steve Hargadon suggested more 'tools' were needed to enable users to see new discussion posts, comments, and email alerts with updates. dana boyd (2009)also notes that SNSs are beginning to iterate with users, evolving through their needs. An individual adding to the discussion suggested that professionals sign up for multiple professional SNS but don't have time to contribute. I agree that focusing on one or two SNSs within my professional realm will enable me to contribute, collaborate and create.


2. Discussion of the tools in terms of personal learning.


I've moved. I've moved a lot. This is community #8 and although we are certain we don't want to leave our hamlet on the hill life happens. Good friends and connections have been made but locations have changed for many of us. There is nothing better than finding a lost friend or being found on FB. The years of absence melt away and you're amazed by the photographs of husbands/wives and kids. dayna boyd affirms that "adults, far more than teens, are using Facebook for its intended purpose as a social utility. For example, it is a tool for communicating with the past." Although, once found, the direct communication ceases to be as frequent as that between those who live in my community and with whom I socialize offline, which is inline with research suggesting FB is used to maintain or solidify already existing offline relationships (Ellison, Steinfiled, and Lampe 2007. By analyzing my own social network behaviour I agree with boyd and Ellison (2007) that SNSs will provide important research context for scholars "investigating processes of impression management, self-presentation, and friendship performance." I tend to update my status with something that portrays me in a positive light and highlights one of my interests. I will admit to wanting to create a particular impression; one that may not include the mundane chores of daily domesticity. My particiaption in FB is limited to uploading photos, sharing a few links sent to me by others, commenting on friends' status and irregular status updates. Occasionally, I will use the Event function to create an invitation to a party as it saves a lot of time, (i.e. our annual Ullr party where all our friends are encouraged to come with poem in hand. Maybe next year I will upload the podcast of this year's poem.) My FB habits are more as a viewer than a contributor. I have never used any apps nor participated in Mafiawars or Farmville and to be honest I figure those who do have a lot of free time on their hands. I have never taken a '25 Things' quiz and as boyd points out 'adults are crafting them (quizzes) to show-off to people from the past and connect the dots between different audiences as a way of coping with the awkwardness of collapsed contexts" (2009). That being said, I check my FB account several times a day to 'catch up'. There have been times I contemplated deleting FB, especially when friends would use it to air their personal problems but that isn't too frequent an occurance.


My husband has a personal account and has recently set up a FB page for PerformX racing, a rider development mountain bike team. He uses it to post videos of riders, race results and anything mountain bike related. It is a great way to get sponsors interested as well as garner interest in the sport.


3. Discussion of the tools in terms of professional learning.


Go back one year to our monthly staff meeting. Every table has papers with charts and stats: the results of a computer usage analysis. Findings: kids spend more time on FB at school than on any other site. Surprise? No, not really. Reaction: outrage by a few and the decision by even less to block FB, and YouTube while their at it. This was a knee-jerk reaction by a few teachers who were the most vocal and didn't take the time to look at why FB might be so popular, nor how it could benefit students. Tracy Mitrano notes "that Facebook offers a dynamic way for a young adult to play with his or her emerging personality." We know that teenagers are continously looking for acceptance, trying on new identities and negotiating social groups. This is how they have always been; we just may not have been so exposed to it since it happened behind closed bedroom doors on the telephone or in class by passing notes back and forth. Although those in favor of blocks to SNSs may perceive these tools to be wasted time, research has shown that they increase social capital, the resources accumulated through relationships among people, (Coleman, 1988) which in turn " increases commitment to a community and the ability to mobilize collective actions, among other benefits." In general, this social capital increases societal well-being and trust in a community. In addition, SNSs may enable students with low self-esteem to participate in a social situation with more ease.


September 2009 and blocks are lifted with the Superintendant addressing the entire district on the need to take risks and embrace the changes the 21st century is presenting. The message is loud and clear: learn alongside our students and provide them with the necessary skills they will need in this digital age. Sigh of relief. Now we can get on with the learning. The library is always full: students hanging out reading on the bean bags, checking their FB at lunch or 10 min. break. They check continously and sometimes they have two windows open so they can go back and forth between school work and status checks. So we've lifted the blocks but is anyone going to attempt to use FB as an educational tool? T.H.E Journal (Jan. 2010, Vol. 37) published a survey on educators use of SNSs and although 6 out of 10 educators enrolled in a SNSs, mostly FB, very few actually participated. Teacher librarians, or media specialists, do exhibit a much higher use of SNSs like FB to promote reading, their libraries and reading campaigns. Of those interested in social networks, they indicated they would like to join SNSs dedicated to education and the role of technology. Although I have helped my colleagues learn and use blogs and wikis in their classrooms I had another focus for FB.


Without any formal education on SNSs our students are leaving their doors wide open and anyone can walk right in. Would you be happy if a complete stranger walked into your son/daughter's room and went through his/her personal belongings? Didn't think so. In additon, I was hearing teachers complain about cyberbullying happening on their students' FB pages. One teacher insists on being 'friends' with her son on FB and he also happens to be in her class - small town. That is how she became aware of the bullying and spreading of rumours by a few of her students. She said she'd given them the talk about privacy and proper netiquette but they had heard it all before. She needed something new - something that would really hit home. I had attended the Tech It Up! conference in Kamloops this past October and had heard Micheal Carr-Gregg, PhD discuss cybersafety and cyberbullying. A few days later I had an idea. At this same conference we had won a Smart Response 'clicker' system. The clickers are individual hand held devices that look like a remote control. Essentially they record student responses to multiple choice or true-false questions. The results are recorded immediately and can be reviewed through pie graphs that enable students to clearly see results. Since I wanted to ask students personal questions about their online habits, specifically in regards to SNSs I designed a 21 question multiple choice survey. Students would be able to answer using the response system in a completely anonymous manner.


The results weren't surprising for me but as we went through the colourful pie graphs you could see the light bulbs going off in the students' heads. I conducted this cyberbullying and cybersafety workshop with grades 6, 8, 10 and 11 with an average of 25 students per class. Students with a FB account ranged from 98% to 100%, and most had at least one personal handheld device such as a cell phone or iPod with the average number being two. Students are spending between 1 -3 hours per day online. About half had played around with creating identities online that were as boyd terms 'Fakesters'. When asked why they would create an alternate identity, students replied they were on gaming sites predominantly or to entrap an ex-boyfriend/girlfriend. One educational assistant admitted to creating her FB account using a nickname and false age, notifying only her close friends of these changes, so that she couldn't be searched online. The more telling results were from questions centering around rumour spreading and inappropriate use of SNSs. About 30% admitted to spreading rumours online, while approxiametly 65% said they had had rumours spread about them. My two favourite questions were 'Do you think you use the internet responsibly?' to which 78% responded positively, and 'Do you think people your age use the internet responsibly?' with about 78% responding negatively. In terms of privacy, I was pleasantly surprised by the number of students in the younger grades who were aware of privacy settings and had changed theirs accordingly. The older students looked a little more shocked when I informed them that even if you delete a picture within 60 seconds it remains in the FB cache and is retrievable. The conversation led to the discussion of employers who currently use FB profiles to look closely at potential employees and how your online reputation needs to be protected. Few had ever thought about how their behaviour now would effect their futures. I provided them with real life examples of individuals who had had photos on FB come back to haunt them (NDP candidate Ram Lam).


Tony Wilson, a Franchise and Intellectual Property lawyer in Vancouver, recently published an article in the BCTF publication TEACHER (March 2010), "Online Reputation Management", which I share with students and their teachers. He states that, "there has never been a generation so willing to share their innermost feelings, their outrageous opinions and their inappropriate photographs than the under-25 age group who make up the mainstay of Facebook." As he mentions, it might be cool to post pictures of the latest 'parents away on holiday' party when you are 15 years old but it is disengenious to think that parents or friends of friends' parents won't see the photos, especially if you have 750 'friends' online. Facebook has 350,000,000 users, 90% of all middle and high school students have accounts, and many don't understand how their online behaviours can influence how others view them. Canadian courts have ruled that FB pages can be used as evidence, even if the user has made their settings as private as possible. The new Web 2.0 technologies have created a new area of law called Online Managment Law, which "straddles the law of defamation, freedom of speech, privacy law, copyright law, and trademark law." So post only pictures you would be willing to let your mother and grandmother see and watch what you say about others. To echo the deans of Canadian Law Schools, "Clean up your Facebook pages. Your prospective employers are all law firms. They will be looking for you.”


After discussion of the survery results and questions, I show students a few videos outlining the potential dangers of SNSs, how to access their FB privacy settings and 3 websites to use inorder to check their online profiles. I created two pageflakes, one for grade 6-9 and the other for grades 10 - 12, borrowing videos and resources centering around cyberbulling and cybersafety that students can access anytime. When the session is over students flock to the computers to check their profiles and make sure their privacy settings are engaged. Not surprisingly, so did I. My pictures, and ones I was tagged in, were available to anyone so I changed that to friends only. I don't have control over what my friends post and I point this out to students. You might think your online behaviour is safe but what about your friends? The good news that emerged from these workshops is that lessons students learned about not talking to strangers and appropriate behaviours offline transferred to their online worlds. Most students did not talk to invidividuals they had not met in person, or at least knew through a friend. Those approached to meet strangers in person declined and reported any inappropriate or uncomfortable online situations to others. Survey data from Pew found that "teens are aware of potential privacy threats online and that many are proactive about taking steps to minimize certain potential risks."


Although Facebook was originally founded for the community of Harvard University in 2004 it has since boomed to include a population four times that of the United States with youth playing a central role in its popularity. "The single most important factor in determining whether or not a person will adopt one of these sites is whether or not it is the place where their friends hangout"(boyd, 2009). With little adult supervision, our students are navigating the waters of SNSs alone. As educators, it is imperative we guide them in their journey and exploration of new technology as well as inform parents of the potential benefits and drawbacks. Despite fear mongoring in the media, "Facebook is disruptive, popular, and important because it intersects with all that is edgy about innovative networking technologies deployed to full social advantage". (Mitrano, 2006) I have also been witness to students using FB for educational purposes and a reported 50% of users say they use the SNS to work on school related work. Students most often work collaboratively on study notes and share them on FB. A few weeks ago I observed one of our German exchange students chatting online with a friend back in Germany through FB and looking over his shoulder was a one of our students trying to translate. The exchange student has been teaching this boy German over the past few months. It was one of the greatest uses of FB I have ever seen.


These innovative networking technologies are beginning to bring with them significant changes for professional development and educational networking. No longer is professional development relegated to a one time meeting within a school or district listening to a key note speaker for the day. LearnCentral and Classroom 2.0 offer anytime, anywhere educational development. Hargadon aruges that they are "more effective as educational tools than as social ones." Teachers, by nature, are eager to learn and continue their education. Web 2.0 provides the opportunities for real 'networking' with like-minded individuals who share the same love of learning with interests in particular fields of study. When educators join nings or other SNSs focusing on education they learn first hand how engaging and rewarding social networking can be. They provide on-going professional development, peer-support, keep teachers up to date and help create a positive outlook. By actively participating as a learner, contributor, collaborator and creator teachers will realize that these Web 2.0 tools are primarily about communication resulting in a revised view of the role of SNSs in learning. Joyce Valenza points out that our "practice must adapt to complete shifts in the information and communication landscapes. We don't necessarily have to use FB socially with our students, and there are many reasons not to, but we can use the skills they develop online and integrate them in our curriculums.



Non-linked works cited



boyd, danah. 2009. "Social Media is Here to Stay... Now What?" Microsoft Research Tech Fest, Redmond, Washington, February 26.





Foote, C.. (2010, March). Empowering Students for Life. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, 17(2), 29-31. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1981674901).





Ellison, N. B., Steinfield, C., & Lampe, C. (2007). The benefits of Facebook "friends:" Social capital and college students' use of online social network sites. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12(4), article 1. http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/ellison.html

Hargadon, S.. (2010, March). Educational Networking. MultiMedia & Internet@Schools, 17(2), 10-12,14-16. Retrieved March 21, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1981674861).

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue: mashups and multimedia

2010 Kunamokst Mural Mosaic

Search it. Save it. Grab it. Copy it. Paste it. Flip it. Mix it. Mash it. Appropriate it. Create it. Share it.
Canadian pianist Glenn Gould noted that "one of the certain effects of the electronic age is that it will forever change the values we attach to art". Our digital environment has opened the doors to multilevel participation in the creative process, providing access to a storehouse of images, audio, video and text to be mixed and mashed showcasing new understandings, connections and ideas that were never imagined by the original creators. The power of mashups in education is that they allow us to reach new conclusions in a multimodal nature using a vast amount of data.

1. Reflections on the process of learning about the tools
Guilt had taken hold of me: the phone calls to my parents were infrequent; I neglected to send birthday cards on time; no trips to the post office to send my children's artwork to them; and visits to Vancouver were impossible. I had neglected my duties as a daughter and had to make up for it. All any grandparent wants is to feel connected to their children's kids when physical locations keep them separated for long stretches of time. Kids grow up so fast and change drastically from one visit to the next. How to keep everyone connected to witness the everyday happenings and remain a presence in each others' lives? There's Skype but my kids can't sit long enough to have a good conversation or are simply to shy. Sharing photos through Flickr is good but I had to do something more to make up for my delinquency as a daughter. I wanted to make a movie by putting photos, music and text together but the MovieMaker program on our PC wasn't working so I had to find another way. A quick Google search rendered a list of free video creation tools. The first one was animoto. It is easy to upload photos or video (your own or choose from animoto's stock), add a few text boxes and choose music from animoto's own selection or your iTunes. Since animoto uses the tempo of the music to determine the speed and arrangements of the photos the creations are more like an MTV video. If you aren't thrilled with the first version produced you can simply have the program remix the photos to create a new video. The short video created using my husband's motorcycle and mountain bike photos was quick and easy to make. At the time, animoto did not offer an educator's version so I was limited to the 30 seconds allocated to those using a free account. I have recently signed up for the educator's account which allows users to create full-length videos. The addition of an educators version is testament to its application in education.



After using animoto I was curious to try out other tools. Next, I found masher.com and away I went. Talk about simple. Masher allows you to upload photos, video and audio in addition to adding text. You can also choose to create certain effects on photos to make them appear vintage or as if you took them underwater. One of the great features of masher.com is that users have access to hundreds of BBC photos and videos to use. I added in a video of a snowboarder hucking a cliff right after the shot of my four year old son skiing with a caption, "He's getting good". Unlike animoto where pictures are layered on themselves or with other photos, masher uses your pictures in a linear form and is more like a movie than music video. It took me awhile to download the videos to masher but that was due to my computer and not the program. So within an hour I had created a video showcasing 'the Kuhn lifestyle' that I sent to all my family. They were thrilled and touched I had spent the time to create the video, which they no doubt figured had been very time consuming and difficult. There has been one catch though and that is that the code to embed the movie only brings up the music and a black screen. The link I sent in an email only worked for some family members and I haven't figured out why. Figuring out the small glitches is important if I want students and teachers to adopt an otherwise very easy to use tool.

Kuhn Lifestyle video


Finally, there's the tried and true voicethread. I've been using this tool for personal and professional purposes for over two years. Similar to the above mentioned tools, voicethread allows users to upload photos, video, and documents along with audio. What distinguishes this tool from the others is the ability for group participation in the form of multiple users being able to record their insights, questions and comments for all to hear. The best voicethreads are those that are interactive and participants are both listening and responding to each other. When I first began using the tool for work students ran into problems with uploading photos. With the removal of blocks and adjustments to the firewall these issues were solved. I have an education account to voicethread as well that enables schools to create an unlimited number of voicethreads.

2. Discussion of the tools in terms of personal learning
As previously mentioned, these tools are great for creating family videos and recording events to share with relatives and friends. But I wanted to move beyond the more common uses and share my learning with others in my family to allow them an opportunity to have their voices heard. As discussed in last week's post, my parents are involved with the Angkor Hospital for Children in Siem Reap, Cambodia. In addition to sharing their photos, the stories and insights they have gained from their many years of work overseas should be heard by others in the medical community as well as with their family and friends. Using voicethread allows for others with similar experiences to comment and ask questions, as well as shed a different perspective on events in the country. The voicethread can be shared with the hospital and doctors, nurses and administrators in Cambodia can include their voices to add authenticity and a global perspective. As an educator, I can also share the creation with students to provide them with real world examples of working overseas and helping the less fortunate. In his article on Voicethreads in School Talk, Urbana: Oct 2009. Vol. 15, Iss. 1; pg. 4, 3 pgs, Bob Sprankle notes, "Voicethreads allow for work and content to be moved into a social and global arena, transforming presentations into conversations that invite deeper reflection and critical thinking".



2. Discussions of the tools in terms of professional learning
It is the conversations that Sprankle refers to that are missing from the voicethread projects I have had students previously create. This is not to negate the great work students have produced: from environmental awareness campaigns, to STD/STI reports for peers and poetry projects. Reading Bill Ferriter's wiki on voicethreads I became aware that I wasn't truly using the tool to its full potential and in turn missing an opportunity to help students develop active thinking and listening skills. Once the student voicethreads were complete I would often upload them to the library blog to share with the school and community but I never encouraged or instructed students to comment on each others. Posting student work in VoiceThread will allow them the opportunity to reflect on their work, have conversations about the work outside of the classroom and inviting dialogue. Ferriter's wiki is a great resource that provides tips and questions to help students keep the digital conversations going in a meaningful way. There are also sentence starters generated by teachers Kelly Gallagher adn Matt Copeland to develop active thinking. With time and practice teachers can allow students to create and moderate their own Voicethread conversations on topics that are important to them. Providing students with more control and responsibility will teach them moderation skills as well as online accountability.

For our students, this type of socialization fits well with connecting the classroom with their outside lives. Facebook and other social networking sites are popular because youth have a need to connect, converse and find their place in society through socialization. Danah Boyd, a PhD student at the University of Califronia-Berkely , wrote in her blog post that kids are "desperately craving an opportunity to connect with their friends; not surprisingly, their use of anything that enables socialization while at school is deeply desired." Interacting online is second nature to our students so combining these skills with required learning of the curriculum and you have higher motivation and engagement. Ironically, "children and teens of this generation have enthusiastically embraced technology for social networking and content creation purposes but have failed or not been allowed to extend their technology expertise over into their academic pursuits". (Marcoux, Loertscher) Introducing tools such as VoiceThread, animoto and masher to our students bridges that gap and taps into multimodal learning, making allowances for all learners while nurturing creativity and innovation.

Currently, I am working with three other colleagues in my school on an inquiry based unit focusing on water. The team is made up of the senior science teacher, the art teacher, the special education teacher and myself, the teacher-librarian. Our district offered schools the opportunity to take part in an Observational Learning Team initiative; the idea being we could observe other teachers to enable us to better meet the needs of all students. Our group decided to take it a step further and see how an inquiry based interdisciplinary unit could improve the learning of all students. We are including a field trip to the water reservoir, guest speakers, and presentations for the introduction. Students will be guided through the process of choosing a focus and developing an essential question, research skills, reflection, creating and publishing their work. With this in mind I put together a short animoto video using creative commons material with the tag search 'water'. I wanted to present a variety of images, audio and text to get students talking about the various ways we use and view water at home and around the world. By simply creating a mashup of the results from my tag search I got a snapshot of the folksonomy of water.



This mashup will also serve another purpose: showing students another way to demonstrate their own learning in a creative user-friendly manner. Taking the real and authentic problem of water as a resource, students can use technology to gain a deeper understanding of the issues, in their own community as well as around the world, and use these tools to engage viewers. In 'Dr. Mashup: or, Why Educators Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Remix' (EDUCAUSE Review), Brian Lamb, writes that mashups are "not just works of art that are appropriated and remixed but the functionalities of online applicaitons as well". Take for instance a mashup using Google Earth, video, images and audio from creative commons and you have students who can take you on a world tour examining the world's water resources. Integrate maps with other Web 2.0 tools such as RSS feeds, websites and you achieve cross-application functionality. Marcoux and Loertscher found that student presentations became more sophisticated using mashups and a variety of technologies. By modelling how these tools can be used in presentations for students we can help inspire and motivate their learning alongside our own.


Some of the same images used in the animoto water video can be uploaded to voicethread and can be used as discussion starters. We can provide students with active thinking sentence starters such as:

• This reminds me of...
• This makes me think of ...
• I wonder ...
• I realize...
• I noticed....
• I'd like to know...
• I'm not sure...
• If I could ___________ then I would_________

Once students have practice with voicethread and teachers have modelled how to be active listeners and thinkers the conversations will become richer and students will become more engaged. In addition, it will allow for the inclusion of different learners by combining audio, visual and text. It is often the case that we learn of a new Web tool and try to integrate it into the curriculum but we may wish to consider the learners and their specific needs and challenges and find a particular application that would be well suited to helping them learn. Animoto, masher, voicethread and other media tools "enable visual, aural and textual learners to quickly create and communicate complex new and powerful stories and messages of a multimodal nature". (McPherson) These applications are so user-friendly that students can focus on finding and assembling the elements they wish to include in a unique creation showcasing their learning. Students' work will be available to a broader community where they will be able to comment and reflect on each others work. They will feel that teachers are connecting with their own lives through the use of social media in education and we will be surprised by the quality and depth of the conversations.

Non-linked sources

Marcoux, E., & Loertscher, D.. (2009). Achieving Teaching and Learning Excellence With Technology. Teacher Librarian, 37(2), 14-22,88. Retrieved March 14, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1938481241).

Sprankle, B.. (2009, October). VoiceThread. School Talk, 15(1), 4-6. Retrieved March 14, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1884218111).

McPherson, K.. (2008). mashing literacy. Teacher Librarian, 35(5), 73-75. Retrieved March 14, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 1502965521).