1. Engaging our 21st Century Learners
The Networked Teacher

2. Why should our approach evolve?
I present to you:
A Brief History of
‘Technology’ in Education

3. A Brief History of ‘Technology’ in
Education
“Students today can’t prepare Bark to calculate
their problems. They depend on their slates,
which are more expensive. What will they do
when the slate is dropped and it breaks? They
will not be able to write.”
~Teachers Conference. 1703

4. A Brief History of ‘Technology’ in
Education
“Students today depend upon paper too much.
They don’t know how to write on slate without
getting chalk dust all over themselves. They can’t
clean a slate properly. What will they do when
they run out of the paper?”
~Principals’ Association, 1815

5. A Brief History of ‘Technology’ in
Education
“Students today depend too much upon ink. They
don’t know how to use a pen knife to sharpen a
pencil. Pen and ink will never replace the pencil.”
~National Association of Teachers,
1907

6. A Brief History of ‘Technology’ in
Education
“Students today depend too much upon store
bought ink. They don’t know how to make their
own. When they run out of ink they will be unable
to write words or ciphers until their next trip to the
settlement. This is a sad commentary on modern
education.”
~Rural American Teacher, 1928

7. A Brief History of ‘Technology’ in
Education
“Students today depend on these expensive
fountain pens. They can no longer write with a
straight pen and nib. We parents must not allow
them to wallow in such luxury to the detriment of
learning how to cope in the real business world,
which is not so extravagant.”
~PTA Gazette, 1941

8. A Brief History of ‘Technology’ in
Education
“Ball-point pens will be the ruin of education in our
country. Students use these devices and then
throw them away. The American values of thrift
and frugality are being discarded. Business and
banks will never allow such expensive luxuries.”
~Federal Teacher, 1950

9. A Brief History of ‘Technology’ in
Education
“The Internet is not a great tool for teaching. The
Internet pales in comparison to the hype
surrounding it. People think that children can
think of any topic and pull up a wealth of
information on it, but that is not the case. The
information in a library is what people seem to
expect, but nobody has the time to transcribe
entire libraries onto computers. There is nothing
on the Internet that is incredibly beneficial to
education, yet we continue to waste money on
it.”
~The Monterey County Herald, 1999

10. A Brief History of ‘Technology’ in
Education
“We are not going to allow iPods and BlackBerrys
and cellphones and things that are disruptive in
the classroom. Teachers cannot be expected to
look under every kid’s desk at what they are
doing”
~Mayor Bloomberg, 2006

11. David Warlick sums up what is so very shortsighted
about many of the snapshots in time just listed:
“Food for thought: I’m getting tired of hearing
people continue to ask for the evidence that
technology helps students learn. It doesn’t matter.
We know — that good teachers help students
learn. We need technology in every classroom
and in every student and teacher’s hand,
because it is the pen and paper of our
time, and it is the lens through which we
experience much of our world.”
~David Warlick

12. The Backchannel
 The backchannel is everything going on in the
room that isn't coming from the presenter.
 The backchannel is where people ask each other
questions, pass notes, get distracted, and give
you the most immediate feedback you'll ever get.
 Instead of ignoring the backchannel, Social Media
tools help you to leverage its power.

13. The Backchannel
 There are many great (free) Backchannel
providers
 TodaysMeet
 Edmondo
 Google Moderator
 Chatzy
 Present.ly

14. How can I use Backchannel in
Class?
 Further engage your students during a longer
movie
 Often students start to tune out longer films shown
in class
 Teacher can use the backchannel to:
 keep students more engaged throughout the whole movie
 monitor comprehension and common misconceptions of the
topic
 pose questions at pre-determined times in the film
 provide ‘notes’ on the film in the form of a transcript of the
backchannel
 Students can use the backchannel to:
 ask each other questions and answer the questions of
others

15. Why plug yourself in?
 Our students are Digital Natives (Marc Prensky,
Don Tapsott), and as such, have been ‘plugged
in’ since birth.
~Digital Native: a person who was born during or
after the general introduction of digital technology,
and through interacting with digital technology
from an early age, has a greater understanding of
its concepts

17. Is All Screen Time the Same?
 While many children and adolescents are
engaged in too much ‘screen time,’ using
media is not in the same category as TV and
gaming, in terms of their effects on
development.
 A recent Kaiser Family Foundation report,
"Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-
Year-Olds," found that students who use
media the most also spend more time with
family, friends, and other activities.

18. Digital Immigrants
 Those who came into technology later in life can
be characterised as being Digital Immigrants
 Digital Immigrants have 2 choices:
 choose to adapt, accepting that we do not know this
world as well as our children and look to them to
help us learn
 choose to be inflexible immigrants, focusing on how
good things used to be
 If we are to reach our children and help them
learn, we must adapt, we must face the fact that
our students are no longer the people our
educational system was designed to teach.

20.  Perhaps by effectively integrating Web 2.0 tools
into our practice, we will:
 not only engage our students further in their
learning and prepare them for their collective future
(instead of ours); but also
 teach them to use these tools effectively, and
more importantly, responsibly.

21. It needs to be said that nothing replaces good
teaching. The best teachers don’t need
technology to educate our students; no
technology in the world can replace good
practice.

22. So, what is a Networked Teacher?

24.  Research tells us that we spend far more (read:
too much) time teaching and assessing our
students with lower order thinking types of
activities.
 So, where does the use of Blogs, Wikis, & other
Web 2.0 tools “fit” in Bloom’s Taxonomy?

25. Bloom's Revised Taxonomy Sub
Categories
Each of the categories or taxonomic elements has a
number of key verbs associated with it:
 Creating- designing, constructing, planning,
producing, inventing, devising, making
 Evaluating- Checking, hypothesizing, critiquing,
Experimenting, judging, testing, Detecting, Monitoring
 Analyzing- Comparing, organizing, deconstructing,
Attributing, outlining, finding, structuring, integrating
 Applying- Implementing, carrying out, using,
executing
 Understanding- Interpreting, Summarizing, inferring,
paraphrasing, classifying, comparing, explaining,
exemplifying
 Remembering- Recognizing, listing, describing,
identifying, retrieving, naming, locating, finding

27. Let’s have a closer look at the three
highest orders of thinking:
Analyzing, Evaluating & Creating

28. Analyzing
 Linking – this is establishing and building links
within and outside of documents and web pages.
 Tagging – selecting one or several key terms that
best describe the crux of the content

29. Evaluating
 Blog/vlog commenting and reflecting – Constructive criticism and
reflective practice are often facilitated by the use of blogs and
video blogs. Students commenting and replying to postings have
to evaluate the material in context and reply.
 Posting – posting comments to blogs, discussion boards,
threaded discussions. These are increasingly common elements
of students' daily practice. Good postings like good comments,
are not simple one-line answers but rather are structured and
constructed to evaluate the topic or concept.
 Moderating – This is high level evaluation; the moderator must
be able to evaluate a posting or comment from a variety of
perspectives, assessing its worth, value and appropriateness.
 Collaborating and networking – Collaboration is an increasing
feature of education. In a world increasingly focused on
communication, collaboration leading to collective intelligence is
a key aspect. Effective collaboration involves evaluating the
strengths and abilities of the participants and evaluating the
contribution they make. Networking is a feature of collaboration,
contacting and communicating with relevant person via a
network of associates.

30. Creating
 Publishing – whether via the web or from
home computers, publishing in text, media
or digital formats is increasing. Again this
requires a huge overview of not only the
content being published, but the process
and product. Related to this concept are also
Video blogging – the production of video
blogs, blogging and also wiki-ing - creating,
adding to and modify content in wikis.
Creating or building Mash ups would also fit
here.

31. In Summation
 Web 2.0 tools address three key features of
successful instructional tasks that lead to the
greatest student achievement:
 They are collaborative
 They are student-centred
 They are authentic

32. Where to begin!
 Blogs
 R.S.S.
 Wikis
 Google Docs
 Prezi
 Voicethread
 Audacity (podcasts)

33. Blogs
 Blogging is educationally sound for teaching
students because: (Davis 2008)
 Blogs provide a space for sharing opinions and
learning in order to grow communities of
discourse and knowledge — a space where
students and teachers can learn from each other.
 Blogs help learners to see knowledge as
interconnected as opposed to a set of discrete
facts.

34. Blogs
 Blogs can give students a totally new perspective
on the meaning of voice.
 As students explore their own learning and
thinking, their distinctive voices emerge.
 Student voices are essential to the conversations
we need to have about learning.

35. Blogs
 Blogs foster ownership and choice. They help
lead us away from students trying to find what the
teacher wants in terms of an answer.
 The worldwide audience provides recognition for
students that can be quite profound. Students feel
more compelled to write when they believe many
others may read and respond. It gives them
motivation to excel. Students need to be taught
skills to foster a contributing audience on their
blog.

36. Blogs
 The archive feature of blogging records ongoing
learning.
 It therefore facilitates reflection and evaluation.
 The archive provides an opportunity for students
to find their thoughts on a matter and then see
how their thinking has changed and why.

37. Blogs
 The opportunity for collective and collaborative
learning is enormous.
 Students have the opportunity to read their
classmates’ blogs (thoughts) and those of others.
 This is not possible in a regular classroom setting.
 The interactive nature of blogging creates
enthusiasm for writing and communication.

38. Blogs
 Blogging engages students in conversation and
learning
 Blogging provides the possibility of connecting
with experts on which the topic students are
writing.
 Blogging encourages global conversations about
learning–conversations not previously possible in
our classrooms.

39. Blogs
 Blogging provides the opportunity for our students
to learn to write for life-long learning.
 Blogging affords us the opportunity to teach
responsible public writing. Students can learn
about the power of the published word and the
responsibilities involved with public writing

41. If the dog just wanted to get its family’s attention,
perhaps barking is more effective, no?
This brings up a good starting point: a blog needs
to be purposeful in order to be effective.
What type of Blog will you create?

42. Ideas for Types of Blogs
 Teacher Blogs
 Monthly classroom newsletters, school newsletters,
calendars, events, homework assignments and
other pertinent class information
 Post photos and comment on class activities
 Homework
 The days homework or links to extra practice
 End-of-Day or End-of-Week guided writing letter
 Create a dynamic teaching site, posting not only
class-related information, but also activities,
discussion topics, links to additional information
about topics they are studying in class, and
readings to inspire learning

43. Ideas for Types of Blogs
 Teacher Blogs cont’d
 Provide online readings for your students to read
and react to
 Create an online book club
 Parent Engagement Activities
 Build and publish a class newspaper, using student-
written articles and photos they take
 Post Interesting links
 Ministry of Education reports
 Reading/Math/etc. Activities
 Community organizations
 Family entertainment opportunities in the community

44. Ideas for Types of Blogs
 Student Blogs
 Digital Portfolio
 Publish writing assignments such as: Poetry,
Book Reviews, Short Stories, Movie Reviews,
Essays, Letters, Persuasive Writing, etc.
 Ability to upload other types of documents and
scans or pictures of student work and art projects,
podcasts, vodcasts
 Autobiographical writing such as Journaling
 Express their opinions on topics you are
studying in class

45. Ideas for Types of Blogs
 Student Blogs cont’d
 Write comments, opinions, or questions on daily
news items or issues of interest
 Discuss activities they did in class and tell what they
think about them (You, the teacher, can learn a lot
this way!)
 Cross-curricular: Science reports, Math, Art
Impressions,
 Online Literature Discussions
 Threaded response from classmates
 Venue for developing proficiency in giving and
receiving descriptive feedback

46. kidblog
 Please make your way to:
www.kidblog.org
I’ll do the same!
All you need to do is follow along and you can
create your own class blog.

47. Wikis
 Definitions of wiki on the Web:
 a website that allows users to collaboratively create
and edit web pages using a web browser
 a collaborative website which can be directly edited
by anyone with access to it
 a collaborative Web site set up to allow user editing
and adding of content
 A collaborative Web site oriented to providing
knowledge in some domain. Anyone can enter
information, or change or comment on anyone
else's contributions.

48. How can a wiki be used to support
student learning?
 Any ideas???

49. Growing Success
 Our Board Handbook clearly defines our position
on Group Work:
 Group work/co-operative learning opportunities
are excellent teaching strategies and can be
used for Assessment of Learning where a
teacher can individually assess each
student’s role. Marks will be assigned based on
individual student achievement of overall
expectations. A group mark will not be assigned
to individual students.

50. Wikispaces
 If many are interested, please make your way to:
www.wikispaces.com

51. Housekeeping
 To keep things simple, you may want to have
your own blog and have students write their own
posts and respond to your posts using
‘comments.’
 However...
 If students are going to each have their own
blog/digital portfolio on their own server or
provider, how are we supposed to manage the
time to visit all of them when they update them?

52. RSS – “Rich Site Summary” or
“Really Simple Syndication”
What is RSS? Newspaper analogy:
Imagine that you could have a newspaper delivered to your house that had
only the content you wanted. That is, let's say you want the sports
section from LA Times, the education section from the New York
Times, the editorial page from The Toronto Star, and international
headline news from the BBC.
Now lets say this newspaper would be compiled for you and presented to
you whenever you requested, and, what is more, would only give you the
information that has changed since the last time you asked.
But, even better what if you could also add into this “newspaper” your best
friend's blog on cooking, a travel blog from Asia, updates from
the Chronicle of Higher Ed . . .or pretty much any website you want. T
his allows you to monitor all of the content that you select from the web
without having to visit all of the sites. What RSS does is “syndicate” all of
the content you want, and send you everything you have asked for.

53. Google Reader
 There are many RSS clients (programs) but few
are as simple as Google Reader
 To access Google Reader, all you need is a free
Google Account

54. Google Docs
 This is Google Docs in plain English...

55. Voicethread
 Another fantastic support for Assessment for, as,
and of Learning
 Another tool to help facilitates Descriptive
Feedback

56. Prezi

57. Podcasting
 Podcasting, in simple terms, is a radio broadcast
designed to be played on an iPod, MP2 player or
computer
 There are many programs out there that can be
used to create a Podcast
 Audacity is one of them...
 Free to download and use
(www.audacity.sourceforge.net)
 Easy to use for Novice Users
 Lots of options for Power Users

58. Podcasting
 Features include:
 Record from microphone, line input, or other
sources.
 Dub over existing tracks to create multi-track
recordings.
 Level meters can monitor volume levels before,
during, and after recording.
 Easy editing with Cut, Copy, Paste, and Delete.
 Use unlimited Undo (and Redo) to go back any
number of steps.
 Export MP3s with the optional LAME encoder
library.