Google's, Year in Searches Video

Utilizing Web 2.0 in the Classroom to Enhance Reading Literacy!

One of the most interesting digital junctions in education (and I say digital junctions to express the idea of the ways in which digital tools interface with other educational models) is between reading literacy and the potential of Web 2.0. Take for instance, this graphic from Fountas & Pinnell, When Readers Struggle (Work Cited Below). Indeed, we first must acknowledge that the reader must engage in this organic ecology of cycling systems, and other tilts (such as writing skills and background knowledge) within their individual thought process, but Web 2.0 can assist with this ecology. Web 2.0 is a bi-directional conduit for most comprehension strategies, serving not only as a tool for the expression of comprehension, but also as a source for recapturing, reformulating, and remixing understanding while regenerating connections. 


First, the capacity for readers to express the evolving result of these processes is important. My good friend Maureen Colburn says, "Comprehension is enhanced and deepened through conversation." Digital expression and conversation through wikis, blogs, micro-blogs, back channels, and conversation within social bookmarking can effectively facilitate this expression.


Second, the context of where the reader comprehension strategies occur effects the depth of understanding accomplished. When students have the notion that the only person going to see the result of their work to comprehend is the teacher, the context isn't meaningful. However, when the expression of comprehension is done through digital conversation and interaction, the context is different; it's collaborative, immediate, and cooperative.


Last, student engagement matters. I too am tired of the trite appreciation of Web 2.0 for the novelty of technology, yet the sheer truth is that student engagement increases when they meaningfully use technology.

Digital technologies isn't the only tool to employ when creating an environment where students will more likely use strategies to comprehend complex text. Almost all literacy coaches (I know a couple of wonderful ones) will say that a balanced approach to a literacy program is the best way to promote student literacy. This balance, however, must include Web 2.0, and currently specialists in literacy may not yet have the skills and dispositions required to fully understand the potential of Web 2.0 in how it supports reading and thinking processes.

G.S. Pinnell & I.C. Fountas. 2009. When readers struggle: Teaching that works. Portsmouth, NH. Heinemann. 

The Angry Professor and the "Yawn"

A perfect example of what Michael Wesch is critical. The exercise here is to first watch the professor at Cornell, and then watch Wesch's Vision of Students Today.


Why is that student yawning? Why is that student not engaged? Why is that student physically exhibiting the fatigue of static, professor-centered, sit and get? And, who is culpable for the dilemma of engagement?

TEDx in Madison!

I have the pleasure of working with a great group of individuals on bringing TED to Madison. It's a very eclectic group taking a cross-disciplinary approach to the central idea behind the event. This picture was written by Deb Gurke and is the visual of the concept. In the top left corner, we see the transforming political economy, where catalysts such as immigration, poverty, technology, and the knowledge explosion (or access to knowledge expansion) are all drivers of change. In the upper right is the concept of transforming ideologies, where markets and accountability are in influx. While both the political economy and the ideologies of our time are transforming, they are also pushing what schooling is and what is need from schooling (a term meant to capture the formal public school experience). The collective impact of both of these forces will, in turn, compel schooling to transform too, which we can all agree is lagging behind in how it serves the public.
What we hope to accomplish is to assemble representatives and innovators from the political economy and from the changing ideologies in order to have a collective impact in assisting the transformation of schooling. As most TED events already transmit, the event should be gathering of "cross pollination" for the purpose of understanding, hopefully generating the will and purpose for change in how we effectively educate children on a mass scale.

The Critical Vocabulary of Web 2.0 Technology

Access to understanding any complex concept, whether it's the periodic table, our system of democratic government, or geometry proofs, starts with understanding the vocabulary of the complex concept. Technology is not for want in the area of nomenclature; in fact, many an administrator turns away from even trying  any web applications, no matter how technically simple because of the jargon. So, here is a primer, a no-nonsense list of critical vocabulary (with definitions and some examples) to be used as a springboard and anxiety treatment. Hopefully the list inspires and calms while encouraging you to explore more about how people are utilizing technology to do amazing things.

Web 2.0 Applications: Websites that allow you to create or share something as opposed to just statically reading or looking at something.
Web Browser: The general term for the "brand" of software used to access the internet. As Internet Explorer is to Levi-Strauss Jeans, Google Chrome and Firefox are to Wranglers and Lee Jeans.
Wiki: A web document that more than one person can access and change. Examples: Wetpaint or Wikispaces.
Backchannel: A very localized web chatroom set up for a specific purpose with a smaller audience.Examples: Chatzy or Todaysmeet.
Blog: An online journal to publish thoughts, share experiences, and pass along idea and information. Example: Blogger or Tumblr.
Social Bookmarking: A term for sharing websites with colleagues and friends through a program that is  online rather than on a computer. Examples: Diigo or Delicious.
Microblog: An online "phrase-based" journal that limits the amount of text posted. Example: Twitter.
Cloud Computing: A movement to access computer programs through the internet rather than on your individual computer's hard-drive.
Reader: Scott McLeod calls it a "listing station;" it is a tool to collect website and blog updates so that you can go to one place (your reader) to access all the new information posted. Examples: Google Reader or Netvibes.
Open Source: A movement to make the html code (running behind website programming) "open" so that anyone can look/adapt the code.
Mashup or Mashable: A universally applied term for combining and recombining information such as video, audio and pictures, through Web 2.0 applications.
Embed: The skill of taking a Web 2.0 product (such as a map or a picture) and placing it in another Web 2.0 product. As a magazine clippings are to a collage, Web 2.0 applications are to Web 2.0 applications.
Url: Just the website you see in the address bar at the top of your web browser.
Share Settings: The set of choices you have to choose how public a Web 2.0 document is. You may want to keep it private, or you may want people to access it only with permission, or you may want everyone to be able to look at it.
Tag: A one word descriptor to help categorize a website or web-based article so that you can find it later. Tags are usually used in social bookmarking sites.
Screencasts, podcasts, and videocasts: Casts are a recording of something that is uploaded to a website for access by others. If it's a screencast, it's a video of the actions on your screen (say if you want to teach someone to email). If it's a videocast, it's video of something. A podcast is usually a voice recording of a conversation or dialogue.

"Getting to Yes" author William Ury

Here, Ury energetically provides a précis of his philosophies and methods of negotiation. He is the founder of Harvard's program on negotiation.

This is the QR code for bookmarking my website.

Once you download a mobile or desktop QR Code reader (such as i-nigma or dansl, respectively) you will be able to automatically add my blog to your bookmarks. This is just a low-level functionality for this type of innovation, but the possibilities are endless.