lissenden.co.uk » Social Media

“a few ideas …” (Visions of Students Today)

Steve Lissenden — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 23:31:46 +0000

See all the ideas at http://visionsofstudents.org (an HTML5 interactive video collage).

Investigating Wikis

Steve Lissenden — Sun, 05 Dec 2010 22:27:47 +0000

Race Online 2012 has set the challenge of making the UK the first nation in the world where everyone can use the web.

Aligned with this goal Make IT Happy, the UK wide technology competition for pupils aged 9 to 11, has chosen the theme for this year’s competition to be Pass IT On.

Specifically “schools are challenged to show how they have used technology to connect schoolchildren with others in their community – whether that is down the corridor, around the town, across the UK or halfway around the world.”

A colleague who has taken up the challenge of enabling our children to to provide a community resource, integrated within school, that supports the sharing of ideas and experiences. I thought I would look at wether a Wiki, blog or a combination of these would provide a useful platform. To start with, as I was less familiar with them, I have decided to investigate Wikis.

Initial considerations that have come to mind are;

The platform needs to be accessed from both a closed school network and the internet.
Simplicity and ease of use are essential.
Administration and security. How open will the resource be? Can anyone add and edit content? How will identities be managed and protected? How will security impact administration requirements?
How will be pictures, video and audio be hosted?
Costs will need to be kept to a minimum.
How will the community be made aware of the site and encouraged to participate?

Firstly commoncraft answered the basic question;

What is a wiki?

and this presentation from Rachel Boyd pointed to some great resources;

The Wiki WayA Wiki for school.

I wanted to find solutions that were tailored to fit an educational context. Teachersfirst have done an excellent job of addressing this exact question, reviewing in depth two wiki platforms; Wikispaces and PBwiki and providing working examples of a Wikispaces Wiki and a PBwiki Wiki to try out. I also took a brief look at the educational offering from Wetpaint but I am currently drawn towards recommending Wikispaces. Next step is to sketch out what the children want to do and see if a wiki really fits the bill.

This is How We Think: Learning in Public After the Paradigm Shift

Steve Lissenden — Sun, 07 Nov 2010 11:49:49 +0000

In “This is How We Think,” Richard E. Miller and Paul D. Hammond explore how education must change now that we live in a world where information abounds, where reading and research have moved from the library to the laptop, and where the act of learning itself is now making its way out of the shadows into the public eye.

In this collaborative presentation, Professors Miller and Hammond discuss their efforts to invent new media teaching practices that encourage students to engage with the most pressing problems of our time.

“This is How We Think” continues the line of thinking begun in Miller and Hammond’s “This is How We Dream,” which is currently posted on YouTube.

This is How We Think: Learning in Public After the Paradigm Shift from From Text to Cloud on Vimeo.

Show Your Media Literacy

Steve Lissenden — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 22:28:33 +0000

Nice idea…

In celebration of Media Awareness Week (November 2-6, 2009) we are encouraging students, teachers, and the general public to create videos, digital stories, text, images or any digital media that showcases the different ways they are Media Literate. To get things started, we have created a video that is hosted here on our YouTube Channel (also located at http://drop.io/medialiteracyvideo).

Watch the video and then we encourage you to create your own short digital representation of media literacy. Anyone can then upload their video responses or link to any digital artifact you create here in the comments to this video.

Celebrating and Sharing: Teachers and students are encouraged to take part in this exposition of student media literacy, we encourage you to promote your activities with local media outlets and draw attention to the critical importance of developing media literacy in the digital age.

Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom by Alan November

Steve Lissenden — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:20:59 +0000

Myths and Opportunities: Technology in the Classroom by Alan November from Brian Mull on Vimeo.

In this video presented by Mobile Learning Institute, Alan tours his hometown of Marblehead, MA and comments on the historical global vision of his community. Alan challenges us to think about the emerging role of “student as contributor” and to globalize our curriculum by linking students with authentic audiences from around the world. (For more, read Alan’s article, Students as Contributors: The Digital Learning Farm. novemberlearning.com/resources/archive-of-articles/digital-learning-farm/.)

An introduction to connectivism

Steve Lissenden — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 22:12:33 +0000

Networked Student

The Networked Student was inspired by CCK08, a Connectivism course offered by George Siemens and Stephen Downes during fall 2008. It depicts an actual project completed by Wendy Drexler’s high school students. The Networked Student concept map was inspired by Alec Couros’ Networked Teacher. I hope that teachers will use it to help their colleagues, parents, and students understand networked learning in the 21st century.

Web 2.0 A Machine we Use/ing us

Steve Lissenden — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:39:28 +0000

Another interesting post from Michael Wesch

Michael Wesch, Kansas State University – The Machine is (Changing) Us: YouTube and the Politics of Authenticity

Steve Lissenden — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 21:54:18 +0000

Inspiring….

Web 2.0 and Your Own Learning and Development

Steve Lissenden — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:15:52 +0000

Came across this video by Stephen Downes after reading an interesting essay he wrote;