I’d like to extend a big “thank you” to Mario for taking time out of his busy ISTE 2010 schedule to talk to ISTE Connects about this great resource.

Two years ago I watched the Frontline special report “Growing Up Online”. At the time, I was pursuing my master’s degree in communication and studying new media from an academic and theoretical perspective. At the time, I remember thinking the report was intriguing but also a bit alarmist. It seemed to focus primarily on the dangers (both real and perceived) of a young, Web-savvy generation and ignore the potential of online tools for personal, social and professional development.

Tonight Frontline will re-air this 2008 special report on young people and the Web. I plan to live-tweet the event 7 – 8 p.m. PST and share my thoughts on the topics discussed in the broadcast now that we are two years further into the digital revolution. The full show can be streamed through the Frontline website, so feel free to log on and join this evening’s conversation. Watch for the tag #frontline and share your thoughts on the PBS show’s coverage of the millennial generation.

This is a collaborative article written by the 8th grade students of Saints. Philip and James School in New York about their technology class:

This year we are working on a project that consists of learning while using 21st century technology that we obviously love. You’re probably wondering what we did, right? Here’s the answer to your question.

When we began our project, our teacher told us we would be reading Animal Farm by George Orwell, watching the movie of Animal Farm, and tweeting what we saw in the movie. Our original thought of the project was how boring this would be. Then as we got into the project we began to enjoy tweeting it very much. It gave us a whole new perspective of the task.

As we progressed during the project we began to think about what it might have been like without our present technology. Many of us believe that we take for granted what we have. By using Twitter we can get directly to the most important points of the book. As we all know, when we read a book we sometimes encounter things that may bore us. Twitter helps us gain a deeper understanding of the book.

Learning this way is a lot more effective than simply reading the book and writing a report. We get a more genuine experience by using this learning method. Throughout this entire project, we, as students, have been fully involved. Using Twitter helps us gain a deeper understanding of the book and have a greater appreciation for the technology we have experienced throughout this generation. Sometimes it makes us wonder what technology will be like for the next generation and how much more advanced it will become. Knowing how to use technology properly and intelligently will most likely open up doors to major turning points in our lives. Throughout this project we understand technology more thoroughly. Because of this we have become more digitally literate. If people of our generation don’t have a deeper understanding of technology that would make them digitally illiterate and who knows where we’d be then!

Some of us were also very lucky to participate in the 140 Character Conference in New York City and show to people what we have been doing in our class. This was quite an honor and it was a rush for us to have so many people see the cool things we’ve done. We began with a reenactment of what we do in class and then we sang a song we wrote to Lady GaGa’s “Bad Romance.” After we did this we then were asked questions by people in the audience. It was pretty amazing to see how they were actually into what we did. We were asked both serious, meaningful questions and very funny questions. The questions were all answered very well.

On the way home from the #140Conf our teacher was receiving so many tweets. There was so much positive feedback. Those of us who took part in the presentation were proud of what we did with technology. To think that some 8th grade computer project could turn into something like this. Even when we came back to school we were getting compliments from our teachers and friends. Kids in younger grades were even singing the song we wrote! This project led to so many great things and a different, positive view of something we thought to be so dull.

As you can see, we went beyond the stereotypical Catholic school lessons

Another thing I like to do is share powerful collaborative projects. One I’m keen on right now is called The Longfellow Ten, which has middle school kids meeting across a distance to share stop-motion animations that illustrate language arts concepts. When teachers examine a project like this they get excited about the possibility of partnering with other schools and often ask, “How did those teachers find each other?”

How did you meet? How did they find each other? The answer to both is “Birds of a feather flock together… …and roost in the same trees.” If you’re looking to expand your professional circle start hanging out in the virtual “trees” where like-minded folks gather. Here are a few places I roost, and an idea of what happens there.

Skype: Skype is always running in the background on my computer. Just as I was writing about The Longfellow Ten project a Skype chat window popped up and Telannia Norfar asked “Could you meet with teachers at my school in five minutes?” I ran to get a hairbrush and the video call commenced. Get a free Skype account and start connecting with other teachers. (I’m jkrauss1989.)You’ll be surprised how many just-in-time opportunities arise.

Ning Networks: Classroom 2.0 and the ISTE Community Ning are professional social networks that use the Ning platform. I learned about The Longfellow Ten from George Mayo when we met in a Classroom 2.0 group. Join other educators in these networks and your professional life will be richer. If you’re looking for a school partnership check out the Collaboration Opportunities area of the discussion forum in Classroom 2.0.

Twitter: I’m not much of a planner so my favorite twitter feeds are the ones that announce events I can join RIGHT NOW. Some tweets come from people (@stevehargadon), some from event channels (@edtechtalk), and some are aggregated or “hash tagged” tweets of conference proceedings (this week’s ISTE-Singapore conference is #iCTLT2010). If you think Twitter is for the birds, try using it as a professional development events tracker.

Flickr: I started using Flickr photosharing to collect my travel photos in one place. I joined a few themed groups then started my own called Reinventing PBL. I met Terry Smith through the group when he posted photos of projects I had to learn more about. Visit the Reinventing PBL group to view projects and meet the 130 contributing members behind them.

These are just a few of the busy places I spend my time. I’m interested to hear how social web environments shape your professional life. Which “trees” do you find yourself returning to again and again?

* * *

Jane Krauss is a teacher, author, curriculum writer and professional development consultant who lives in Eugene, Oregon. Jane and colleague Suzie Boss are coauthors of the ISTE bestseller Reinventing Project-Based Learning. In February and March Jane and Suzie host a series of conversations about PBL implementation called PBL~Better with Practice.

I scrapped the lecture idea and instead spent the next five hours developing Twepardy – a Jeopardy-like activity that forced my students to sort through the reams of data populating the Web to find information on microblogging.

Lest my work go to waste, I uploaded Twepardy on to my favorite presentation sharing Web site, SlideShare. Please feel free to download to use and revise for whatever means fit your needs.

I had my students create Twitter accounts as homework, then at the start of class they signed in to a private chat group I created on TweetWorks. The students could then Tweet the answers to Twepardy questions without spamming their followers. One bag of mini-Snickers to pass out for correct answers, plus a ceramic, duck-shaped piggybank for the big winner, and we were off.

While using Jeopardy style games in education is certainly nothing new, I found the format extremely conducive to teaching the ins and outs of new technologies. It’s always difficult to teach new programs. My students have differing skill levels and preexisting knowledge of applications and I spend more time trouble-shooting than I do educating. Using techniques like online scavenger hunts, trivia contests, and research races makes the process of puzzling through new technologies much more enjoyable.

As you can see from the student Tweets below, Twepardy is sure to be the next big thing in EdTech.

I have two great loves in my life: my family and my career. I am passionate about both of them, but lately it seems like work has overshadowed my family. If I am being honest I would have to say that for the better part of the last year my family has taken a backseat to my career. I teach and develop online classes. Most of this is done at home on my own time due to the constant interruptions at school which occur even during my prep time.

I also have developed an amazing PLN that I love interacting with, but each minute I spend with them is a minute that I could (and should) be spending with my family. My family does not quite fully comprehend that I learn so much on Twitter. The other thing that they do not understand is that some of the friendships I have made on Twitter are very meaningful.

My husband made the awful mistake of giving in to my request and bought me a BlackBerry for Valentine’s Day this last year. I am now connected to all of my email accounts, Google chat, and Twitter around the clock. While I think this is great my family is not as thrilled. You see, I have not yet mastered the art of unplugging and taking a tech break. I enjoy the ability to connect to my network at any time from any place. My family is not impressed that I make myself so easily accessible to the world.

Last week I walked away for a few hours. I actually powered down my laptop and cell phone and I snuggled up with my husband in our favorite over-sized to watch a movie. When I had trouble remember the last time we did that I realized that I have been plugged in for way too long! It finally occurred to me that I need to find some balance. While I love working and I am not in danger of burning out; I am missing out on some very important things in my life. I am just not sure how an online teacher spend less time online, but I will figure it out.

Twitter, blogs and emails can wait, but my family can’t. I still have a lot of work to do online this summer, but I am going to turn off Twitter and I am going to purposefully neglect my reader. While I am online I need to focus on the task at hand. I need to learn to become more efficient when I work. I get tend to get sidetracked very easily! I am not quite sure how I will do this, but I need to find a balance.

I know other people have faced the same issues. How have you managed to strike a balance between work and family time? What are some of the suggestions you have for finding an adequate amount of time for each?

Twitter

The first thing you need to know about Twitter is the official hashtag, #NECC09. If you use a variation of that, #NECC, NECC, #NECC2009, you risk having your tweet mixed up in other unrelated streams. Here is how to leverage this hashtag to your advantage. The first thing to do is search Twitter for #NECC09 using http://search.twitter.com/. This is a straight-forward site; nothing more than a search engine plugged into Twitter. For those of you who want to watch the conversation happening live, check out www.twitterfall.com. There you will find a very neat web application that will show recent tweets, displayed using a waterfall effect based on trending topics. Be sure to run your own search for #NECC09 to have all of the NECC tweets pull into your Twitterfall.

If you are addicted to Twitter like me, then I highly recommend using an application like TweetDeck. This application will break Twitter into columns. For example, I have a “Replies” column, a “Direct Messages” column, a “Search for #NECC09″ column, and a “Search for ISTEConnects” column. This allows me to monitor several different streams all on one screen. There are other great Twitter App alternatives out there, so if you are not a fan of TweetDeck, just search around.

Click for Full Size

And as always you can find a list of Tweeps heading to NECC09 here. Follow as many as you can and learn about their NECC experience.

Flickr

Flickr is a great way to socialize the sharing of photos. Below you will find the official NECC 2009 Flickr Stream. If you have a Flickr account and want to share your photos of NECC with the rest of us, just tag your photo with “ISTE30″ and it will be added to this stream.

Blogs

Here is a running list of people at NECC that plan to produce NECC-related blog posts. If you want to add yourself to the list visit this post.

I’m sure many of you have Wikis and NECC Ning groups we should know about, so please leave links to them in your comments on this post. Also, any other tips you have for handling this social media blitz would be greatly appreciated. Don’t forget to visit ISTE Connects throughout NECC for real-time coverage of events, sessions, and impromptu interviews with NECC attendees.  I’ll see you all on the Livestream!

]]> http://www.isteconnects.org/2009/06/19/prepare-for-the-deluge-of-social-media/feed/ 0 http://www.isteconnects.org/2009/06/18/security-awareness-for-twitter-account-access/ http://www.isteconnects.org/2009/06/18/security-awareness-for-twitter-account-access/#comments Thu, 18 Jun 2009 13:00:04 +0000 Wes Fryer http://www.isteconnects.org/?p=6674 When it comes to granting other people, applications or websites “access” to any online account you maintain, whether the account is on Facebook, Twitter, GMail, or any other site, my advice is to be cautious and proceed slowly. This evening Dean Shareski brought the website HelpIranElection.com to my attention via a tweet. The website exhorts Twitter users to click a link to turn their icons green in a show of support for Iranian democracy. The problem is, I have no idea if this “granting access” to my Twitter account is innocuous or potentially problematic from a security standpoint. I did change my Twitter icon to a green hue, but did so using Seashore rather than the website of Arik Fraimovich, the creator of HelpIranElection.com.

Arik describes himself as a “friendly web-geek and entrepreneur.” His Twitter profile indicates he’s from Israel. That information by itself doesn’t really help answer the security concern at hand, however.

A Technorati search for the website in question currently yields 14 blog results, and none of them appear to be crying “foul” over the site. Perhaps it can be trusted? I’m not sure.

Back in September of 2007, a rash of spam was unleashed when lots of folks clicked email links and provided their email credentials to the site Quechup. The website sent automated emails out to all of the contacts in a person’s webmail account IMMEDIATELY after login credentials were entered, WITHOUT asking permission. That Quechup situation was a heads-up indicating how important it can be to safeguard your login credentials for different websites, and be VERY careful whenever another site asks you to enter them or grant its application ACCESS to your account. Quite often, the fine print is too fine for most people to read so they don’t do it. The results can be dangerous.

Facebook announced last month it has plans to offer “verified applications” which ostensibly would be better security risks for people to use and try. Rogue Facebook applications received a bit of press this past spring.

Is there any harm in following what Doug Symington calls “herd behavior” and changing your Twitter icon green? No. Is there a potential harm if you change your icon color using the web link from helpiranelection.com? I’m not sure. To stay on the safe site, I’m not clicking it and authorizing access to my Twitter account to find out.

Technorati Tags:
twitter, iran, @helpiranelection, #iranelection

1. Share your interests.
2. Use Twitter to share links.

With so many outstanding ideas and links being shared daily, it is important to consider how these resources can be efficiently saved for future use.

To date, my primary ways of saving Twitter resources shared by others for later reference have been:

1. “Favoriting” the tweet by clicking the empty star by the tweet either on the website or in my favorite iPhone Twitter application, Twitterfon.
2. Retweeting the tweet so I can both share it with others and find it later in my own Twitter stream/feed.
3. Clicking the shared link and then using my social bookmarks (Diigo which cross-posts to Delicious) to save and tag the website for later use.

This evening I read that the Evernote web service has been updated to permit Twitter users to dynamically save Tweets to Evernote. After you follow EverNote’s MyEn account on Twitter and click the link EverNote sends as a direct twitter message, you can link up your EverNote and Twitter account by logging into the EverNote website. With that setup complete, simply include “@myen” in a Tweet to save it to EverNote. This is a new and innovative way to archive good ideas as well as links from Twitter friends.

How are you saving and sharing “good finds” from Twitter?

Another California educator, Ken Shelton, also tweeted a link to the iTouch/iPhone session he conducted at CUE last month, “iPhone/iPod Touch: The Ultimate Teaching and Learning Assistant.”

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by chocxtc

Tracey McGrath, a Philadelphia educator, tweeted a link to the Apple Learning Interchange article, “iPod touch. Touching student lives in the classroom: Creative Uses for iPod touch in Education.”

California educator Diane Darrow tweeted a link to “Calisphere iTouch History,” which is a project bringing California history resources (including primary source materials) onto the iTouch/iPhone platforms.

The December 2008 OEDb post, “Top 50 iPhone Apps for Educators,” is also worth checking out on this subject. I found it via Diigo’s top social bookmarks tagged “iTouch.”

Thank you learning network for sharing all these great resources! I hope I can tune into Tony Vincent’s live webcast on Wednesday to learn even more and ask him some questions! :-)