Being a dinosaur is not so hard after all?

The 21st century skills guidelines have recently been released and teachers around here are a bit hesitant to even look at them, let alone implement them. One of the teachers in my school recently brought in an article that could make everyone feel better about the changes. Find that article here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/406/story/463086.html
Kay McSpadden has done a fine job of making the teachers feel more comfortable with the changes we are all facing in education. She mentions that she is a "dinosaur" and that her use of gadgets is lacking (although, after reading what she has tried, she's ahead of many). Upon reading the new skills a little more closely, she realizes that not all of the skills deal with gadgets, but are more real life skills that are needed in today's workforce.
So, if it is not about the gadgets, then why are schools spending so much money in technology? Because the gadgets help create that hands-on environment that kids today want so much to be a part of. Having capabilities to do podcasting and moviemaking for class projects helps students soar to the next level in creativity and collaborative skills. Students could very easily give their thoughts on a poem they've learned in English class by writing their thoughts on a piece of paper. But, to take their thoughts, record them in an audio clip similar to what they might hear on a talk show and sharing it will their friends, teachers and family? That's what makes a difference.

Feeling a little Twitterpated?

Recently read an article about twitter from the desk of David Pogue at the NY times, "Twittering Tips for Beginners". I find that many people have similar situations when using twitter. They'll try it out and think it is way too time consuming, so they'll put it aside. Then, someone shines the light on how it can truly be used as a helpful tool and they become addicted to it's usefulness.
I, personally find that twitter is one of the biggest components to my personal learning network. Upon first using it, I too found it to be a little overwhelming. Then, I got used to the fact that I probably wasn't going to be able to read every last post that was written. Another thing that helped me so much was the addition of finding @ replies. Being able to see all of the replies directed to you is important so you don't miss answers to questions or other good tips along the way.
I find some of my best information from twitter. Once you find the right people to follow (those that don't post every other minute and those who post excellent ideas), you'll understand why it is an important resource to use. Not only do I find great information there, but I also find the most up to date information. If something new and exciting happens in technology, you can be sure that someone is talking about it on twitter.
I encourage everyone to check it out. Give it 2-3 weeks before you cast it aside. It might take that long for it to really click how great it is. www.twitter.com

Web 2.0? What?

While reading up on all my twitter posts, I discovered this great little sound byte about Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. I love the explanation and just wanted to take this opportunity to share with everyone. Follow this link to hear the audio: http://www.ijohnpederson.com/images//2008/06/jim-kloss-on-web-2.mp3
I truly believe that schools need to focus their attention on these tools and make Web 3.0 our NOW and our future. It will take buy in from teachers, parents, administrators and county/state decision makers to really make it part of the curriculum. Students today understand it. They get it. They want to make it part of every aspect of their lives.
I recently surveyed the students at my school and they had an overwhelming plea to have more access to collaborative tools and to use them in the classroom. Teachers are always looking for ways to make learning interesting. Turns out, it's right under our noses! And so easy to use!

Wordle provides education and fun!

I discovered www.wordle.net quite some time ago, but hadn't really considered some of the things that one could do with it. For those that may just be discovering wordle, once you visit the website, it asks you to paste text into a text box and then it creates a word cloud of that text. If you used one word over and over again, that word will be larger than words you only used a time or two. Today, while counting down the minutes during lunch duty, I had an opportunity to explain it to a colleague. Through the course of that conversation, we came up with many great ideas of how to use it.
1. Have a student put their research paper into wordle to see what words stick out the most. This could serve as sort of an evaluation tool as well. Are you emphasizing your topic with appropriate terminology? Could you focus more on a topic than the wordle is showing? There are many questions one could ask themselves about a paper after viewing their wordle.
2. What if you recorded yourself into speech recognition software while giving a speech and put your speech into wordle? We discussed the possibility of "uh" showing up as the main, bold word. It would be even more interesting to compare the speech text to the written speech a student made before hand.
3. The final idea, before the lunch bell rang, was to put a resume into wordle. The wordle you see above is created from copying and pasting my resume into the wordle website. It's interesting for me to see that technology and school show up as the two main words. I think this will be something neat and interesting to paste into my online resume so employers can see my main focus before even looking at my qualifications.
Wordle is so much fun. I've been playing with wordle now to show everything that makes up my personal learning network. I think it will be a fun way to show people what my network looks like. I would like to use it as an introduction to explaining personal learning networks to teachers in my school.

Second Life update

I've been on Second life for about a month an a half. I thought I'd do an update on where I am and what I've learned. You may be able to tell from my picture that I have learned how to change my appearance and I have found a new hobby-shopping! I've even paid actual money to buy hair!

I have met lots of great people that have helped me learn new things, join groups that are of importance to education and do a little girlie shopping! My personal learning network grows every day with the new people I meet.

I've learned things like how to create a laptop in world with links that take you to my blog and my website. I've also learned how to do a presentation using a presentation board and laptop. One of the neatest things I've learned is how to create a tour. The tour allows you to create pictures of places you might visit in Second Life and give the person on the tour a description of that place, maybe even an assignment and a picture! I"ve not gotten to use any of these on actual people yet, but hope to do so very soon.

I"ve attended some great workshops on integrating technology by some big name folks in technology education. There are so many things to do in Second Life with all the events to go to. Workshops, parties, dances, socials. They're all ways to meet people and share ideas.

I've also had the chance to share Second Life with my administrators. While we were in world, we were able to voice chat with another administrator on SL integration. It couldn't have been a better way to show them how well it could function as a tool for learning.

I've now been asked to research more on getting an island for my school and possibly my school district. I have a few administrators online and have pulled in a few technology facilitators. I'm on pretty much every night if only for a few minutes and I constantly seek out new learning opportunities.

A lot of progress in less than 2 months! Can't wait to see what the next two months brings!

It's official! I have a space!

I finally have a website! I've been planning to create one for quite some time and am so excited to finally announce that www.mrslachance.com is up and running! It is very basic at this point, but does include a page for Second Life and a page for Google. My plans for the future are to include lots of information on various resources available for technology integration in the K-12 classroom. I also want to include lots of information about creating and maintaining a personal learning network.
So, please stop by and check it out. I'm accepting comments for anything you think I should change or update.