http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/01/tteach/

tteach is essentially …School 2.0. Where the world educates each other and where you learn what you want to learn.

tteach is a soon to launch, free interactive knowledge sharing website. Here anyone can teach, learn & share their knowledge, educational resources & original classes worldwide through a unique, well designed, interactive & user-friendly interface.

Teachers earn a share of advertising revenue & learners create their own schools of knowledge - remember anyone can be a learner & anyone can be teacher…depending on what you already know and what you'd like to learn about! Subjects will vary from the academic through to life skills – everything is welcome as long as it is good quality teaching & there are people out there who are eager to learn about it.

http://www.tteach.com/ 

So what do you think - Is this School 2.0?  Is this the future of education?

---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com:

http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/02/delicious-highlights-2/

1. 
   

   Cyberbullying | PodTech.net: Technology, Business, Media, and News Podcasts

   
   

   In this podcast, Wendell Davis interviews Symantec Internet Safety Advocate Marian Merritt on "cyberbullying," and what parents can do to help prevent it from happening to their children.

   
   

   to cyberbullying podcast .

   
   


2. 
   

   Jamglue - Remixing for the Masses

   
   

   # Upload or Record your own Tracks # Create an original Mix or personalize someone else’s in our simple online Mixer # Show off your music: email it, embed it, or just sit back and let the Jamglue community discover your talent!

   
   

   to web2.0 music remixing

   
   


3. 
   

   Newbie’s Guide to Flickr | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone

   
   

   How-to Newbie’s Guide to Flickr.

   
   

   to howto flickr guide 

   
   


4. 
   

   rminder.com — quick and easy reminders

   
   

   Phone reminders - 8 free - to anywhere in Canada/US. Sychs with iCal, Outlook, Google Calender and many more.

   
   

   to calendar phone reminder

   
   


5. 
   

   How to Read a Scientific Research Paper–

   
   

   How to Read a Scientific Research Paper– a four-step guide for students and for faculty

   
   

   to education howto Tips

   
   


6. 
   

   North Carolina DPI ~ Geocaching

   
   

   This is a great resource around geocaching and using it for K12 education.

   
   

   to geocaching resources k12

   
   

---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com:

http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/04/vstream-and-the-imposter-syn

I attended the VStream Symposium a few weeks ago http://vstream.edu.uwo.ca/ .  To put it in the organizers words it “helped identify key issues facing educators using video in the classroom and provided useful instruction and example to illustrate current practices both technical and pedagogical in nature”. 

I did record audio of the conference through my digital recorder, but the quality is not as good as I would like.  The keynote by Marc Prensky and the breakout Sessions were all video recorded so I am anticipating that the sessions with be posted soon on http://vstream.edu.uwo.ca/.

I got to meet Ben Hazzard whom I have known online in various incantations over the years.  It seemed like we have known each other forever through networks, but never really met in person.  His session “When Video Is Irrelevant?” described as:

Interesting lessons learned through practical application of video and audio in the classroom as well as professional development contexts.  See when video is ignored, when audio is embraced, and how students react to video.  Will the audience of a successful podcast grow when video is introduced?  Will students write more effectively to script video?  This session will share examples from the field, real podcast statistics, and encourage participants to think about the choosing the best tool for the job.

Ben led a great discussion and demonstrated some of the ways he used video in his classroom.  Some of the common points came out with regard to copyright and distributing media.

Diane Zorn led the second breakout session that I attended.  I have to be honest; I hadn’t heard of Diane, although she seems to be popular with the Media and has won awards for her online course at . Her session “Designing Student-Centered, Highly Interactive, Rich Media Courses Using V-Streaming with Mediasite and Video and Audio Podcasting” described as:

Diane Zorn will share lessons learned and best practices of designing, implementing and managing a fully online, rich media, student-centered, critical thinking, skills-based course that uses Mediasite V-Streaming and Video and Audio Podcasting. From an analysis of the problems that were encountered and then sought to resolve, and of student experiences of the course, this presentation identifies ten principles for good practice in the development and delivery of innovative online education. The presentation includes a tour of the presenter’s course website and a Course Design Toolkit folder.

One idea that she brought up that has stuck with me is the “Imposter Syndrome.”  I guess it might be categorized as a possible psychological reason why educators might be fearful of getting online with their students and publishing materials.  She mentioned that educators, no matter their successes, had a fear that they were going to be “found out” as a fraud in the field that they claim expertise.  This might also have a domino effect with regards to online professional development.

---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com:

http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/05/splashcast-build-remix-embed

I have been playing with Splashcast  to remix content from flickr and youtube into a seperate channel.  The Splashcast interface is easy to work with and allows you to upload your own audio, video, photos or feeds from Flickr or Youtube.  Of course every Spashcast Channel has it’s own rss feed.

I created this Splashcast channel in a few minutes.  It contains several PSA’s that I can use for upcoming discussions on cyberbullying and internet safety.

 Update:

I forgot to mention that you can upload PowerPoint and other Documents into as shows into your channel as well.

---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com:

http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/09/the-hacker-ethic/

Just thinking about Stephen Levy’s book  Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution and the Hacker Ethic that he phrased:

• Access to computers—and anything which might teach you something about the way the world works—should be unlimited and total. Always yield to the Hands-on Imperative!


• All information should be free.


• Mistrust authority—promote decentralization.


• Hackers should be judged by their hacking, not bogus criteria such as degrees, age, race or position.


• You can create art and beauty on a computer.


• Computers can change your life for the better.

Perhaps we all have a little bit of that hacker ethic in us when we are working online.

---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com:

http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/10/more-streaming-video/

I mentioned that I had found a number of streaming satellite television web sites before. This time Rob pointed me over to Videohybrid, where you can watch full length movies and television shows online.  Again, I do question the legality of the web site and could see it being shut down by copyright holders in the very near future, but it is worth a look.

—————————-

Update:  You may have to try the web site again later, as it is quite busy.

---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com:

http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/11/leading-learning-2007-making

An Invitation To You:

Leading Learning 2007 presents its third annual conference May 6-8 at Deerhurst Resort in Huntsville, Ontario. The title of this year’s conference is “Making Connections”.  

We invite you to participate in this interactive learning conference, where you will explore how educators are making effective use of technology to develop innovative models for teaching, learning and training.

Educators will enrich their thoughtful and effective use of ICT to enhance teaching practice and increase student achievement.  

Leading-edge e-learning programs, technologies, and the effective practices presented at this conference will provide participants with opportunities to interact, network, engage and make connections.

Web-registration is now open at www.leadinglearning.org.

Leading Learning 2007 is jointly hosted by, Toronto Catholic DSB, Trillium-Lakelands DSB, Peel DSB, York Region DSB, The Strategic Alliance for eLearing and York University .

 ———————————————————————————————————————–

Please tag items related to the Leading Learning 2007: Making Connections with "LL2007".

(Full Disclosure - I am on the Development Committee for the Leading Learning Conference)

---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com:

http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/12/quentin-ofthe-day/

From Teaching and Learning with the Net Generation by Kassandra Barnes, Raymond C. Marateo, and S. Pixy Ferris

. . . But Net Geners Learn Differently

Although they value education highly, Net Geners learn differently from their predecessors. This generation is unique in that it is the first to grow up with digital and cyber technologies. Not only are Net Geners acculturated to the use of technology, they are saturated with it. By the time he or she has reached 21 years of age, the average NetGener will have spent

• 10,000 hours playing video games,


• 200,000 e-mails,


• 20,000 hours watching TV,


• 10,000 hours on cell phones, and


• under 5,000 hours reading (Bonamici et al. 2005).

Having been raised in an age of media saturation and convenient access to digital technologies, Net Geners have distinctive ways of thinking, communicating, and learning (Oblinger and Oblinger 2005; Prensky 2006; Tapscott 1998).

---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com:

http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/13/the-10-keys-to-effective-pro

From David Jakes Wiki of TechForum Orlando presentation on Professional Development.

The Ten Keys are:

Key 1:  Understand the purpose of professional growth.

Key 2:  Align professional development with school district goals.

Key 3:  Know your usership.

Key 4:  Use pilot programs.

Key 5:  Invest in "peopleware."

Key 6:  Develop space for professional learning.

Key 7:  Get off site.  Get new ideas.

Key 8:  Encourage informal learning

Key 9:  Use Learning teams and clubs

Key 10:  Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate

Visit his session wiki: http://professionalgrowth.pbwiki.com/

---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com:

http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/14/thinking-about-social-networ

I was thinking about Konrad’s Post and all the different places I have recently started to generate lists of friends in social networks:

• http://classroom20.ning.com/


• http://stopcyberbullying.ning.com/


• http://twitter.com/qdsouza


• http://explode.elgg.org/qdsouza/friends/


• http://www.commun-it.org/community/qdsouza/

Also thinking about the social networking laws that Rheinhold mentioned in “Smart Mobs.”

Moore’s Law - The empirical observation made in 1965 that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit for minimum component cost doubles every 24 months.

Reed’s Law- The utility of large networks, particularly social networks, can scale exponentially with the size of the network.

Metcalfe’s law - The value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of users of the system (n²).

Sarnoff’s Law - The value of a broadcast network is proportionate to the number of viewers.

---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com:

http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/15/thought-of-the-day-2/

“Computer networks are social networks.”

(I can’t remember where I read this recently)

---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com:

http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/16/digital-learners-video/

I found this great little video on Rachel Boyd's blog.  This video is prefaced with the following:

Since most of today's students can appropriately be labeled as "Digital Learners", why do so many teachers refuse to enter the digital age with their teaching practices?

This presentation was created in an effort to motivate teachers to more effectively use technology in their teaching.

Please see http://t4.jordandistrict.org/payattention to learn how you can become a better teacher.

---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com:

http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/16/100-web-20-ideas-for-educato

I have placed a copy of the 100 + Web 2.0 Ideas for Educators document on Scribd. Scribd is a free online library where anyone can upload documents, embed a PDF player to publish and view documents right in your web browser. It also converts uploaded files into multiple formats. But beware, the upload and conversion time can take quite a while.

---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com:

http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/17/internet-safety-training-eve

A few points from the Cybercops Training Event that I attended today:

Powerpoints: CyberCops AirDogs Training Presentation and Kids Help Phone Presentation

Ontario Ministry of Education and OPP

One root causes that lead to bigger problems that the OPP officers who staff the infobus at Habbo.ca mentioned were children giving away there passwords to their friends or having poor passwords that someone else could guess based on public information. Watched - http://www.netsmartz.org/stories/friendship.htm

The other was the use of web cams by inexperienced children and problems that ensue. Watched - http://internet101.ca/ts_webcams_e.htm

Mentioned Dr. Shaheen Shariff and the paper Lord of the e-flies: Cyber-dilemmas and the policy vacuum for schools. (Still looking for an online copy - any help appreciated)

Watched YTV PSA on Cyberbullying (found it on MartySpellerberg.com with Others)

Kids Help Phone:

- Most effective way that they have found to deal with bullying is to have the Parents of the Bully and Bullied, as well as both children, and a third party come together, either school or the police. Also, plan to bring all groups back together at a later date in order to see progress.

- DO NOT DO - Adult of bullied child talks directly to the bully telling them to stop. They have found that the children who were getting bullied complain of it getting worse rather than better.

- Slide 17 of Kids Help Phone presentation - How Adults Can Help

Online Behaviour Explanation with regards to YouTube Posting Issues - “adolescents are impulsive, and don’t believe life is going to happen tomorrow.”

---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com:

http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/17/another-edublogger-on-toondo

I found another edublogger on Toondo today - Vicki Davis has a few toons that I have included below. Anyone else in the edublogosphere creating content over there?

---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com:

http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/23/how-do-you-collaborate/

Collaboration in the present is unlike what might be typically construed as collaboration of the past (even a few years ago). When we look at education as a whole, are we collaborating as we would have in the past or using the tools of the present to embrace the future?

Here are a few points of comparison that I started, feel free to add your own.

Past	Present
Collaborating locally with a Team, Department, Committee or Family.	Mass collaboration with loosely joined nodes creating innovations that could not have been created in the past (Wikipedia) without nationalization or internationalization of a cause. (War, Environmental Catastrophe)
Send emails, leave messages in mailboxes, or snail mail.	Collaborative documents Posted by Quentin D'Souza | | 0 comment(s) Quentin D'Souza Quote of the Day http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/23/quote-of-the-day-2/ From Brian Lamb the Digital Chef wiki. “RSS is a gateway drug…” ---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com: Thinking about ... Social Networks Quote of the Day The Hacker Ethic Del.icio.us Highlights Toondoo Classroom 2.0 Posted by Quentin D'Souza | | 0 comment(s) Quentin D'Souza Toward a New Knowledge Society http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/23/toward-a-new-knowledge-socie A great presentation by Stephen Downes up for the World’s Best Presentation Contest. ---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com: Scrapblog for Media Rich Presentations Posted by Quentin D'Souza | | 0 comment(s) April 24, 2007 Quentin D'Souza Cellphones in Education http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/24/cellphones-in-education/ This is an extended response to Dean’s Post “This is what we are dealing with” which I commented on a few times. Dean was referring to the CBC article ban of Toronto school boards on cellphones. If we are going to disagree with a cell-phone ban then there needs to be evidence to support why we disagree, with a few of our own personal reasons, research and examples. A couple of ideas that I shared around the use of cellphones were based on features that cellphones have(I added a few more here): Use photo feature to capture two blackboards full of writing that students were supposed to copy down after 100 minutes of class time by a history teacher. (Some old resentment here) Use photo feature - notes, PowerPoint, diagrams - anything that needs data archiving and retrieval Capture video of science experiments for labs and share the results with the teacher to annotate projects or use as part of the process. Videojournalist for purpose and product Students record notes from their classes by using the voice-mail features - or cell to podcast web tools. Use RMinder http://www.rminder.com/ to blast voice and text reminders to students based on assignments and due dates of different events. Can even match to events in outlook, google cal, ical and more. One of the more obvious tools is Internet browsing and web sites that could be accessed for learning. eSchoolNews as pointed out by Dean, mentions Wink Site for creating web sites that can be accessed by mobile phones. It also has a nice little education section. Pointed out the following article from What Can You Learn from a Cell Phone? Almost Anything!by Marc Prensky. Which includes some practical examples like the cell phone audio tours of Minute Man National Historical Park, test preparation tools, and mobile phone games. I also pulled out the following quote which seemed appropriate to the article: As usual, students are far ahead of their teachers on this. The first educational use they have found (in large numbers) for their cell phones is retrieving information on demand during exams. Educators, of course, refer to this as “cheating.” They might better serve their students by redefining open-book testing as open-phone testing, for example, and by encouraging, rather than quashing, student innovation in this and other areas. Let me state definitively that I am not in favor of cheating. I am in favor of adjusting the rules of test-taking and other educational practices in a way that fosters student ingenuity and creativity in using learning tools and that supports learning rather than administration. There seems to be much more research in the UK, Europe and Australia on this, as I bookmark. Update: Innovate-Live Seminar Series (Registration is free.) June 7, 2007, 1:00 PM EST SMS as an Instructional Tool Seminar Leader: Susana Sotillo, Associate Professor of Linguistics, Montclair State University Preliminary results of an eight-month Short Message Service (SMS) pilot study on social networks and language functions show that students often use SMS to request clarification of class assignments, readings, and exam questions posted to the university’s course management system. Students also use text messaging to justify absences or to request favors, such as letters of reference or research guidance. This seminar will explore the use of SMS or text messaging between an instructor and college students at a large urban state university as a potential pedagogical tool for encouraging active student participation. An important question that needs to be addressed is whether it is possible for an instructor to use text messaging to pose an overarching question that addresses course goals and objectives (e.g., What is the nature of language? What functions do we perform with language?). Would this type of question generate thoughtful student responses? Since text messaging is extremely popular among entering freshmen, could the use of specific types of questions keep students interested in a semester-long conversation that would lead to what education experts refer to as the social construction of knowledge? ---Related Articles at Teaching Hacks.com: No Related Posts Posted by Quentin D'Souza | | 0 comment(s) April 29, 2007 Quentin D'Souza Leading Learning 2007 - Online Community http://www.teachinghacks.com/2007/04/29/leading-learning-2007-online The online community for the Leading Learning conference is buzzing. A number of presenters have posted questions about their upcoming sessions as well as engage in pre-conference discussions. I haven’t seen this type of online interaction as a pre-cursor to a conference in Ontario before. If you have a few K12 examples I would love to hear about them. The online community is supported using ELGG through Commun-It.org. I can’t thank Tim Hawes enough for all his support for the Leading Learning online community. ELGG has a social networking component of adding “friends” (other members of Commun-It.org) into your own profile, as well as joining different communities within the web site. Perhaps we will one day have a few more sessions that are fully online. I’m thinking of the wonderful experiences of the K12Online Conference. I added my session from K12 Online into the conference wiki space as a virtual session, with the hopes that more people will feel interested in participating. Especially those who wanted to attend the conference as a presenter but could not. Feel free to jump into the conference discussions or the wiki. http://www.commun-it.org/community/leadandlearn/forum/ http://www.commun-it.org/community/leadandlearn/weblog/ http://www.commun-it.org/wiki/index.php/Category:LeadingLearning2007 Please use the conference tag is “LL2007” on related posts and items. These tags are aggregated on the online community home page at http://leadinglearning.commun-it.org from feeds from all over the web. You can also find RSS feeds for the different parts of the online community on that home page. (full disclosure - I am on the Development Committee for the Main Conference) Posted by Quentin D'Souza | | 0 comment(s) About Commun-IT.org | Contact Us