Just the other day a friend sent me an email with a youtube link. ‘Oh, you have to view this video; it is a great video of a camel performing amazing feats – dressage’. To put this in context, I enjoy equestrian sports, my friends and family know this about me. I guess you can call them my social network. We share, collaborate, and communicate about like-minded things. A camel doing dressage is just one of those like-minded things that we collaborate and socialize around and about. We are tied into this community.

I often wonder how I can incorporate these social networks successfully in my classroom environment. I often ponder what would be strong and binding for my students to continually draw them into the community and get them to stick there. We all know that social networks cannot be forced but instead they must be joined and experienced. How can this connection have a collaborative feeling and at the same time be educational. I guess I leave you with my open thoughts at this point until I venture further.

This is knowledge creation and sharing of content at its best.

Some Examples for K12 Classrooms

Examples:

Martin Luther King
http://voicethread.com/#q+Martin+Luther+King.b39151.i208090

Federal Holidays
http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2008/01/23/voicethread-publishing-example-safe-powerful-interactive/

Visual literacy is the process of making meaning visually through images such as graphs, charts, diagrams, and images. Combining words and images adds another level of meaning and PicLits is a tool that will provide you with an engaging way to combine images and words  - moving to that next level of understanding.

Just a little about PicLits. Its tag line is, inspired picture writing. Wow.

It allows you the user to select an image and then drag words to the image to create or express meaning. Interesting idea. If you are not fond of the list of words provided you do have the opportunity to add your own words.

You can save your creation and post it onto your blog. Now that is terrific. Mine is below…

The first article is Digital Storytelling by Regina Royer and Patricia Richards. Within the article the authors identify 16 strategies that have been found to enhance reading comprehension in students. These strategies include active listening, cooperative learning, fluency, graphic organizers, mental imagery, question asking, reciprocal teaching, sequencing, summarizing, and vocabulary. These strategies are incorporated into the five pillars of effective reading which is outlined by the National Reading Panel. The authors tie these strategies into content goals, scaffolding, and multimedia literacy.

Many tools popped into my head when I read this article. Below are a few.

• Inspiration or CMap for concept mapping software
• Wiki for collaborative project allowing students to create their own book
• Google documents so students can collaboratively write a document and edit work of others
• Flickr to share stories through text and images
• Gcast (podcast) to share stories with others
• Viddler to share videos of stories
• Twitter to share ideas

The list could go on.

The second article is about technology professional development. It is entitled, Staff Development Café Style (PDF), by Jennifer Arns. I love this title. What a warm cozy feeling you get just from the title. I am already imaging the smell of fresh brewed coffee and pastries just waiting for me to dig in and enjoy. I am sitting with friends discussing issues of the day and we are sharing our solutions and or providing suggestions. Hey, this is a great idea for a technology professional development session isn’t it. It involves collaboration, excitement, and a supportive environment where tools and ideas can be shared and tried.
What a great idea.

Enjoy!

The tutorials were created in Camtasia and then each student group posted their tutorials onto TeacherTube to share with the world.

Take a look at the tutorial below. It is a tutorial on how to create a Google Custom Search Engine as well as some options and tips for using this tool in your classroom.

How to participate

• Find your school location on the map
• Place a marker in that location
• Write a sentence or two on how you integrate technology into your class
• Include a hyperlink to your school Web page, and
• Add a picture of technology being used

View Larger Map

After giving the assignment, I wanted each student to share the information they gathered with the class in a presentation format. Next, I wanted them to share the presentation they created with the world. When students share work on the Internet they have the potential of  adding overall value to this online information resource. SlideShare is a perfect medium for sharing presentations. Take a few minutes to look at the student presentation below. Does it get you thinking about memory?

 Reviving the ideas of John Philip Sousa