Building Bridges Kindergarten through 99+

My mother was a first-grade teacher; my sister taught in high school and college. My father-in-law and brother-in-law were high school principals; my sister-in-law taught in elementary schools. I have a long-standing interest in building and crossing bridges that connect teachers and learners of different ages and from different cultures. I continue to discover and marvel l at internet tools that facilitate “learning without borders.”

While I blogged for a year at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online as “Curious David” one of my most valued colleagues in learning was a middle school teacher (thank you Pamela, for all you taught me). I find considerable value in monitoring the blogs of Richard Byrne, Steve Johnson, Larry Ferlazzo, and of course the ubiquitous Jane Hart.

Recently I have begun investigating the capabilities of epals and edmodo as tools I might use to reduce barriers between learners from different cultures (including academic cultures) and different ages.  The payback has been immediate both in developing of new virtual friends and of being impressed at the amazing kinds of learning experiences our children are being introduced to.  I am becoming quite impressed by the teaching/learning capabilities of learnist.

What bridge-building tools have you discovered that can promote collaborative leaning across cultures—and across ages Kindergarten through 99+?

Musings about Virtual European Cultural Immersion Experiences

Sunday I had a wonderful Skype session with my nephew, Andrew Bowman and his family now living in Switzerland. The video was crisp — he was using an IPad mini and I was sitting by my MacBook Pro. The sound was clear and the technological glitches were minor. I still need, however,  a few more practice sessions with some old and new international friends (Thank you, Irma Milevičiūtė, for your patience, kindness, ideas, and assistance as I begin learning through Epals about the wonderful work you do in beautiful Lithuania!).  I still need to master how to record Skype sessions and to practice embedding such conversations into blogging software such as WordPress. I’m also eager to compare Skype with other Skype-like video conferencing tools (e.g. Google plus hangouts and Oovoo).

I’ve rediscovered Curtis J. Bonk’s book The world is open and I am pondering to what degree I want to infuse my courses with global awareness and connections before I retire—or afterwards!

Here are some incipient thoughts I am exploring.  I welcome  YOUR thoughts and reactions—especially those of you living in other countries.

  • I see a need and many opportunities to increase global awareness of my students  through the use of media such as BBC News, Google News, and Newsvine. I was thrilled last week when one of my student research collaborators in the “Pioneering a Virtual European Cultural Immersion Course” project  Phoumany Phouybanhdyt alerted me to some of Carroll University library’s global news resources  she had learned about in  her  World Politics class.
  • I’m very much interested in investigating how I might become a member of (or associated with) Etwinning.  My thanks to student research collaborator Catrina Duncan who first brought this potential resource to my attention and to my new and old European friends Irma Milevičiūtė and Reidar Ommundsen who pointed me in some directions on how to join.
  • I’m debating the value of incorporating Kiva or some such international charity/ service component into the classroom to reinforce global compassion.
  • To what degree should I explore global views of religion, spirituality, and being?
  • How essential (and what degree of mastery is essential ) for our students to learn  non English languages? What should be the role of tools such as Google Translate and  Livemocha?  I am always humbled at the mastery of English of my international friends and embarrassed at my own failure to master the basic elements of their beautiful languages.
  • Does it make sense to incorporate into my courses, where appropriate,  cultural universals such as music, cusine, sports, and literature?   So much to think about, but I enjoy thinking—and I welcome your thoughts in particular about what are ideally the key elements for an international cultural immersion experience. Looking forward to your comments.

Reaching Out Internationally

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I’m becoming quite excited about this research project with my S-Team students which involved their creating a “virtual” European cultural immersion experience. So far we have created a Wiki on Wikispaces, built a Ning, and begun to establish international contacts. I’ve discovered, through Epals, tremendous global education resources and made a new Lithuanian friend who has already taught me a lot and reinforced my belief in the kindness of people throughout the world. Tomorrow I try Skyping to Switzerland!

So much to learn—together.

 

 

 

Is it time for me to graduate from TypePad to Word Press?

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I’m beginning to find myself handicapped by the limitations of TypePad and motivated to explore the additional “power user” features of Word Press. Thanks to Jane Hart for extending her Ten New Tool Challenge and her blog software comparison activity for nudging me into this transition.

Why Blog?

This past week I have been "studying" the excellent online lessons posted by Jane Hart about blogging. One consequence is that I have experimented changing the look of my posts here. I'm not sure that I agree with Jane that  it is important to keep a blog "dynamic" by changing its appearances, but in so doing I can better get a sense of what this TypePad blogging tool can and cannot do.

Motivated by Jane's lessons I have begun investigating the relative strengths and weaknesses FOR ME and FOR MY PURPOSES of WordPress, Edublogs, Blogger, and Tumblr. I definitely plan to incorporate blogging as a component into my "Virtual European Immersion Course" (let me know if you are interested in more about this). However, I think I can adequately address that need with the integrated blogging tool which is part of the Social Network software i am using there (Ning).

I initially made a number of half-hearted attempts at blogging about six years ago but didn't seriously start using blogging tools until I was awarded an opportunity to become an online  "community blogger" for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. It was during that year that I  discovered the seminal work of  my "virtual" mentor the indefatigable, never seems to sleep Jane Hart. I was also  blessed to have a supportive editor who gave me free license to explore Web 2.0 tools and to write about whatever i cared to. Given that freedom to explore I rediscovered the joys and challenges of writing. The following year I was given the opportunity to teach a semester-long course on Web 2.0 learning tools to 25 college freshmen and blogging was a tool I introduced to them.

 I blog when I feel I have something to say that might be of interest to others. I have an interest in life-long learning and in sharing what I learn. I have no particular interest in having a large number of followers, but I welcome feedback and, as time allows, I will acknowledge it. I've "met" a large  number of interesting individuals in the past few years who have enriched my life and informed my teaching and learning. Let's learn together.

 

Pensive Robin

Robin the Newf – My Canine Confidante

 

 

Responding to Jane Hart’s “10 Tools Challenge”

Recently Jane Hart has extended an interesting professional development challenge.  Make a resolution to find out how to use 10 new tools this year and write a monthly blog post describing one's experiences with the tools.Though I have been a persistent dillettante of her Top 100 Tools for Learning Lists for the past six years, this semester I have a unique opportunity (and a block of dedicated time) to focus on mastery of a subset of these tools. Hence, I accept and welcome the "challenge!" Thanks for the 'incentive", Jane!

Over the next 15 weeks six of my students and I will be working on a project to create a "virtual European immersion cultural experience course." Among the resources we will be drawing upon are

  1. Jane Hart's Social Learning Handbook (and selective updated material I shall master as a function of my joining the Top 100 Tools Club)
  2. Susan Manning and Kevin E. Johnson's The Technology Toolbelt for Teaching
  3. Laurence Peters' Global Education: Using Technology to Bring the World to Your Students
  4. Michelle Pacansky-Brock's Best Practices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies and
  5. Deltina Hay's A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization: Strategies, Tactics, and Tools for Succeeding in the Social Web

 The broad categories of tools I hope to master with my students are

Ambitious? Yes. Overly ambitious —time will tell but I am blessed with an unusually talented group of students with whom I have worked for years and who each have received a brand new Ipad to support their creation of this new course.

We welcome feedback and ideas.

 

OMG: Twittering (Reconsidered)

Several years ago I pontificated the value of my using Twitter. At that time I  came to the conclusion that Twitter  was not a useful tool for me. Much of my current thinking
has benefitted from my reading or rereading several books (listed
below), my having participated in Carroll Technology Fellows group discussions,
and my developing with six student research assistants a new course ("Pioneering Virtual European Immersion
Experiences"). I also have found value in revisiting some resources I discovered such as this classic tutorial by the consummate visionary, teacher, and proselytizer, Jane Hart.

 

        Books that have shaped my thinking:

  1. Michelle Pakansky-Brock's Best Pracices for Teaching with Emerging Technologies. She writes well and thoughtfully, recognizes the limits of technology tools and offers a well-reasoned set of criteria for deciding which tools to integrate into the classroom. She is definitely someone I find value in "following"—so I do!

Susan Manning and Kevin E. Johnson's The Technology Toolbelt for Teaching. This book provides a useful decision matrix for choosing among and using the "right" technology teaching tool. As a result of having studies this book, I now have a better understanding of some situations where Twitter can be helpful to me in my teaching and scholarship.

  1. Deltina Hay's A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization. This book, though not written by a a teacher or for teachers,  provides a very pragmatic guide to maximizing the benefits of Web 2.0 tools. I found the CD of links particulary instructive.
  2. Paul McFedries' twitter Tips, Tricks, and Tweets. Though somewhat outdated, this book successfully provided me with helpful, lucid details on mastering features of Twitter of which I was totally unaware.

Now if I can only divine my message to Pope Benedict XVI to 140 characters or less.