The Agape Learning Weblog

PB Wiki Back to School Challenge

agapejen — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:32:58 +0000

PB Wiki is still offering their Back to School Challenge. By inviting peers to use PB Wiki, editing your wiki, and more. The value of the wiki is $250. Very nice for doing a few simple things, especially if you are make good use of your wiki.

K12 Online Conference

agapejen — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 18:46:12 +0000

After attending a session at NECC and having my spirits lifted up about my place in the eduverse, I considered submitting a proposal for the K12 Online Conference for 2008. I twittered to one of the co-conveners and asked if there were any proposals that dealt with anything relating to special education. Apparently there hadn’t been in the past and he suggested if I was willing, I should submit a proposal. So, I thought about it a bit and submitted my proposal that would look at web 2.0 tools that were available for free that would support literacy in the classroom.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that it would be accepted, but low and behold, my proposal was one of the nine chosen for the “Get Started” strand. I will say that I am honored to be able to put together a presentation that will be available to so many educators.

So in the next few weeks I will be creating my presentation (adapting really since it is one that I’ve done before) and deciding how I will make the presentation. Right now I’m thinking about doing the presentation in a venue that I am very comfortable in, Second Life. I will be able to speak the presentation, show the slides, and also support with the written text being scrolled on the screen as well. But we’ll see, this is a new challenge that I am looking forward to.
If you haven’t checked out K12 Online before, check it out. It’s a free conference that you can “attend” in the comfort of your classroom or your home. You can even get credit for it!

NECC Session Notes

agapejen — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:08:47 +0000

These are the notes that I took during some NECC Sessions. There will be a link to my wiki page where I live blogged some of my notes using CoverIt Live. My notes are in no way everything that was stated and might have some of my own comments thrown in. I’ve tried to link everything that I could, but sometimes that wasn’t possible.

Enjoy!

Our Students * Our Worlds – David Warlick

Suriawang Dapto – dwarlick av

For the first time in history our job is to prepare our children for a future we can not describe!

Richard Florida – Author The Rise of the Creative Class

Daniel Pink – Author A Whole New Mind

Students today are facing an unpredictable future, they are networked,

When they come into the classroom we chop off their tentacles – their networks – and force them to listen to us.

http://Handouts.davidwarlick.com

http://Davidwarlick.com/sl

Digital Divide – the kids that are connected vs. the kids that are alone (not networked), new information landscape.

South korea is already connected, mexico is working on it

National interest to network kids

“I’ve got Facebook and I don’t know why.”

We are popping up social networks all over the place, but kids have one.

We aren’t doing it right…what is the real value of this behavior.

Wombat – waste of money brains and time

224 – today, tomorrow, forever

Be in awe of the new grammar (IM Speak) they created that worked – done casually – job is to teach them to communicate not how they should write

Starting to pay attention to video games – learning engines – can’t play the game unless you learn something

What does it mean to be literate in this environment

Warnings on Wikipedia that might not be accurate, is subject to spam, etc. Textbooks don’t have that

Long Tail – based on study done in 1998

http://Lulu.com Publish books

Empowering Diverse Learners with Wikis

Assistive Technology Resource Teacher – interesting title but is typical role for atp in schools

Be an Educator before a tech geek – research based, what is the research behind new tools, is there or not yet?

Why should you do something?

What instructional challenges for learning academic content do diverse learners present?

Read at varying levels

Different levels of literacy (in everything)

High level of frustration

Inclusion

Different learning rates

Different learning styles

How do teachers traditionally address?

Modify

Individualize

Differentiate instruction

What are effective instructional applications of wikis in a standards based environment?

Practical Requirements

Promotes student achievement (standardized tests)

Supports existing instructional and classroom structures

Research based

Accessible for all teachers and students

Appropriate for a diverse learner population

Technology not just for technology’s sake

Teachers need to know…

Why should I use it?

Can this fit into my curriculum

Will this gadget work consistently

Marzanao, Building Background knowledge for academic achievement

Hart & Risley 1995 – At 36 months old, children from welfare have only 70% of the vocab of children from working class families, and 45% of children from professional familes. – vocab gap starts as early as 24 months old

Direct vocab instruction works

No vocab 50 percentile on test

Direct 62

Direct related to content 83

Characteristics of effective vocab instruction

Effective vocab does not rely on definitions

Students must represent words in linguistic and nonlinguistic ways

Gradual shaping of words through multiple exposures

Addresses background knowledge

Addressing vocab needs supports teachers ability to meet a variety of learning needs

Part of a school wide plan, not limited to classrooms of the tech superstars

Frayer Model – Definition, Characteristic, examples, non-examples

ESOL – find a picture, definition, sentence

Use the vocab from the standards/units, etc - kids post it on the wiki

Do you do it outside the wiki environment prior to creating the entries or do you just go ahead and edit in the wiki environment

Hybrid works best – some students need to edit outside of the wiki because of additional assistive technology that will not work with the wiki, some people like to go right to wiki because they take up too much time to work outside of the wiki and never get to work with the wiki

Blueprints for Universal Design

Handout

Multiple modes of engagement

CSS – made to adapt for people w/special needs; the three size a’s to enlarge or reduce font on web pages

Windows to the Universe

Drill doll topics

3 levels of text

If speech is added will truly be UDL

Ben’s Guide

Needs to not have grade levels and add speech to be udl

Star Child

Digitized speech but only for level 1

BookBox

Book into talking flash video

Supports 20 languages (choose main – that is spoken, choose second language will appear below)

http://nimas.cast.org

http://aim.cast.org

better to get them 10% or 30% than leaving it in their locker

Ideal for expository text

42explore.com

Directions in pdf and his card

There are two other sessions, Differentiated Instruction: One Click at a Time and The Magic of Digital: Collaborative Interaction in Teacher and Professional Development at my wiki space.The Agape Learning Weblog › Create New Post — WordPress

EduBlogger Con 2008 in San Antonio

agapejen — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:21:22 +0000

After mulling it over for some time, I’ve given up on writing a post that says something witty and intelligent based on what was discussed during the four sessions I attended. Instead, I’m just going to post my notes and suggest that you look in additional places if you want to know more. I’m not the world’s best blogger, and to be completely honest, I zoned out in some of the sessions. It wasn’t that it wasn’t interesting, it was just that my ADD started to kick in.

The first session that I attended was the Social Networking for Professional Development. There was a lot of interesting stuff that came up, and I will admit that I missed quite a bit. My biggest question/concern through all of the Social Networking stuff was the fact that there are a million out there and a million tools, so how do you choose the right ones for you that will give you the most “bang for your buck.” I tend to join things or try things and then forget that I tried them until they pop up when you join another tool that connects them.

So without further ado, my “notes” from this first session:

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Facebook – not conducive, what will they do with their information, students don’t want their teachers

Ning – NECC Ning is great place, more conducive

ELGG – new version coming out this week

Variety of tools?

Synchronous or asynchronous

Diigo – works, but not great

Wiki’s – Darren Draper

Assessment – how do we assess preservice

Continuity – people don’t stay through whole thing

Social Network Faders – is it the feedback that keeps people in it; interaction (Wes Fryer)

Julie Lindsey – nervous web 2.0 staff in Qatar, sense of community created, “put it on the ning”

Ustream – archiving so that you can go back and look again

Immediate Purpose

Generate Feedback

Welcoming the individuals to the community – personal messages are important even though it is time consuming – “Meeting Them at the Door”

“Intellectual Speed Dating” – I believe Kevin Honeycutt

Reason to keep coming back to keep them engaged

Classroom 2.0 critical mass – past critical mass (entry point to go on)

Be willing to let something fail

Solve a problem (david warlick)/summize great tool – twitters about tons of things but finding the stuff you need when you need it

Difference between local (school/district) and global

Frequency and reliability – needs to be able to be used and needs to be reliable

Risk Taking – how do we get people to take risks, come out of shells

NEA – no taking risks

Reality – scheduled days of PD

Digital Bridges – teachers connected to those not connected

Cuts in ed tech positions – cut though 80% grant funded

Ed Tech Leader positions need to be integrated in the curriculum

“When did teachers stop becoming learners?”

Standardized testing – answer

“I need to create an environment that lets my teachers become risk takers.” School Administrator

Just in time learning – Social Networks

The early adopters have adopted, working on the big part of the bell curve

What are the one or two things to show people to get them to adopt? – college prof (Tim Merrit)

Staff development shouldn’t be done to people but with people. – Not respectful

Are you an educational detached retina? Would you like a group to talk too? – Classroom 2.0 suggested

Teach teachers the way we teach students.

The next session I attended was Social Networking for Classrooms. I didn’t do as well taking notes in this session. I suppose I was zoning out because it was close to lunchtime Here are some of the notes that I did take down.

Jim Kline – Saga SD – Open source, using ELGG for K-6; constructed something that met their needs exclusively; kids doing assignments from other classes because they think they are cool, their community is open to everyone for authentic audiences (world)

Vicki Davis – Progression – start in a non-public place to become professional student space; had to kick kids out of horizon project because they couldn’t behave (couldn’t “Do Right”) (digiteen.ning.com)

Julie Lindsay – course each semester on how to act (lessons created, wiki created)

President Rule – What would people think if they found what you post when you run for presidents in 30 years?

Being able to control what is being done – important with classroom social networking

We have to protect our students but also allow them to see the real world.

How much is pedagogy and how much is digital citizenship?

Tapped in – walled environment; had a student who wouldn’t participate in class, but in the chat she shined, was the smartest kid in the class

Art Snacks – social network for kids, kids mentoring kids

The third session I attended was
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If the Leaders Don’t Get It, It’s Not Going to Happen. Here are the notes from this session:

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Managing up vs. managing down

Leadership 3.0 – San Francisco, TCAL, CUE, and some other organization, con for principals and admin

What do we want from them and what do we want them to do?

Admin/Principal caught in middle, what do teachers want and how can we make the district admins happy.

Peggy – What do the students need? What are we not providing and why not?

Just because it’s the right thing to do, it’s not enough.

Everyone wants to help kids learn, it’s how you achieve the goal that is different.

Standards and accountability – inconsistent that happens here.

Julie – support those leaders in technology in the schools

Provide a framework for how the tools are used instructionally; lunch count on smartboard is a level 1

Chris Lehmann – things that must be in place.

1. Help run better.

2. Help communication with stakeholders

3. look at things differently

Kids are the ones that aren’t stuck in the middle, they are stuck at the bottom. They are biding their time playing school. – David Warlick

What are the opportunities for giving the voice to the students?

Technology isn’t on their minds, putting out fires, drugs, etc.

Only expected to go to academic conferences, NECC not academic

Administrator 2.0 Academy – North Lebanon in PA – Jen Dorman

Admin went in to see what kids were doing

Went to school board with initiative

Structured learning environment, had to go

Do Something – Scotland

Granulize what you want them to do? Tech allows them to cross urban/suburban line

What do we think schools will look like, make changes at every juncture. Kdg class of this year is class of 2020.

Trojan horse learning – come in for one reason and do something else

How do you help the school go beyond their school. Looking next door might look good, but if you look at other schools, you find more challenges.

1. Involve them in the learning process entirely – give it to them anyway

2. Bypass admin and talked to the tech people

SLA Students – can’t just use them to use them, must have a reason to use them, have put down the laptops and it’s worked – need to be willing to give up on the technology

Should be having fun while teaching

Admin’s need to know about technology and how it is applied. Why are we settling for less with technology.

1-1 in Illinois student voice; not just oh look we have the technology, lessons must work with technology

Security – Illinois Math and Science Academy, they are digitally literate, know what to do and what not to do, at beginning sophomore year had some security lectured. Had no blocks because they were trusted and had no problems because of the trust and lessons on security.

Boot Camp – learn in the morning, practice in the afternoon;

The fourth session was Web 2.0 for Teacher Education. I have to say this was my favorite of the day. I was intrigued by the thoughts expressed. Here are the notes that I took:

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Afraid of using the phrase Web 2.0 – what is web 2.0

RSS is key

Focus on core engredients and then look at spices

Archiving

Collaborative docs (wiki, google)

Text messaging (skype)

Saving/sharing bookmarks

Social network – this is where we go to get things done

Twitter and other networks have sped up pd, can get answers immediately

Have resources available but give them time

What Is? - blips to e-mail with trainings everyday/ 104 of 150 teachers have wikis

Do the same thing that you are doing, but add a bit of the digital.

When placing student teachers, do they look for people who are using technology?

Write down three goals to work on – teachers, kwl of what they knew, goals for what to learn, and then what did they learn

Customer service – help them work on their goals throughout the year

Cognitive apprenticeship – share skills in real world opportunities

UT Austin – 1 to 1

88% laptops, 6% desktop, 6% no computers – bringing to college in one university

You are going to have to work harder and you won’t be teaching like your teachers were. No stand and deliver.

Teaching as a Subversive Activity

Back it up with standards

Mahara – conjunction with moodle/eportfolio open source

Future teachers ning

Edupunk – teach ways to do it yourself – similar or same as toolbelt theory?

Backwards Open ID

The “Toolbelt Theory”

agapejen — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 02:22:53 +0000

I had printed out a few blog posts from the SpeEdChange blog and been wanting to read them. I finally got around to it today and read this wonderful entry about the “Toolbelt Theory” in assistive technology and universal design.

All I can say is “WOW!” It blew me away! If you are in the special education, regular education, or work with individuals with special needs in any way, you need to read this post not just because of the toolbelt theory but because of the questions that it poses for schools and administrators.

What better way to deal with technology related accommodations than to teach the students themselves to develop their own “toolbelts” of solutions that work for them, particularly those that are free! The skills that they develop by creating their own “toolbelt” are skills that are transferable and skills that they will need later in life not to mention the ability to learn to use the solutions they choose.

There are so many tools that are out there commercially that cost a ton of money, but in this world of Open Source and free, it is much easier to find solutions that will work, can be adapted for their use, or mashed up with something else.

I’m going to give a shameless plug at this point…so bear with me. If you find a solution that is Open Source or you know something that could be made a bit better…please contact us! We can help or will at the very least try to!

Welcome to Agape Learning

agapejen — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:55:22 +0000

Welcome! You have found your way to Agape Learning and we are very glad you are here! Perhaps you found our site because you ran a search for “special needs,” “education technology,” or perhaps you searched for “community.” Regardless of how you got here, you were searching for something and we hope that we can assist you in some way.
Agape Learning is here to support those in the education and health fields as well as individuals with special needs and their families. We’ve all been in situations where we’ve needed help, especially if you deal with individuals who have some sort of special needs. Often times the help necessary is nowhere to be found. Teachers, who have been in the “regular” classroom for many years and even newer teachers, many times become frustrated with the needs of their students as well as the technology to use in their classrooms. Individuals with serious illnesses and physical limitations often need the support of people who have gone through similar things to find what will help them, whether it is a special diet or an assistive device.
Agape Learning is here for all of you. Created by two individuals who have seen the need for one place to help individuals with all sorts of needs, understand that there are limitations to current technologies including usability and pricing, and who want to help those who need it. Even though our backgrounds are very different, we hope that we can join forces and make the world more livable for many people.
We hope that you keep coming back to see the additions we make to the site since we are in the very beginnings of its creation. We welcome your feedback and want to work with those who use the services we intend to provide to make Agape Learning the best it can be!