Category Archives: Collaboration, Connections, Communication

Connections and collaborations via wikis, skype, video conferencing, etc

Gr8tweets for the Month of March

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For the month of March, a group of educators and lifelong learners will be picking a “Tweet of the day” and ReTweeting it with a tag: #gr8t

Hopefully, you will join us in doing this too.

There are a number of reasons why you might want to participate:
• To share what you value about twitter.
• To [[|see what others value about twitter]].
• To celebrate the power and wisdom of your Personal Learning Network.
• To find interesting people to follow on Twitter.

My choice for what to retweet with #gr8t will be a Tweet that I find interesting, or insightful, or humorous. It might link to something I enjoyed reading, or it might have something profound or even fortune-cookie-like that appeals to me:

There aren’t really any rules to participate: Find a tweet you value, and share it!

TweetDeck

For Example, here is a Tweet I’d like to share:

TweetDeck

And so I retweet it with #gr8t:

TweetDeck

Then it shows up on the Gr8Tweets wiki and on twitter searches for others to see and share.
I’m looking forward to sharing the Gr8tweets that I find, at least one daily for the month of March, and I’m hoping you will join me and share what you find.
Feel free to follow Gr8tweets on Twitter and Gr8tweets will follow you back, (this part is totally optional).

Even if you aren’t on twitter or you don’t want to participate, be sure to check out the Gr8Tweets wiki and see some of the reasons why so many educators are finding Twitter a valuable tool!

Network in Action

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Fellow COETAIL’s – we’ve been reading about personal learning networks and the power of connectivism.

Here’s a real life example of what is possible with a network.  New Zealand’s next door neighbour, Australia is suffering right now from raging bushfires.  These fires have already claimed the lives of many Australians, their homes, their schools, their communities. Bushfire Australia


From Jenny Luca‘s Ning – Working Together 2 Make A Difference

Victoria, the State I live in in Australia, has been hit by a tragic natural disaster that is affecting the lives of many of our country communities. On Saturday the 7th of Feb., bushfires, fanned by fierce northerly winds in 46 degree celcius temperatures, ravaged our countryside, leading to the deaths of 173 people. This figure is expected to rise to over 200 in the coming days as they gain access to affected areas and search homes. Native animals, livestock and family pets were other victims of this disaster.

So how can we all make a difference? We would love to see our education community from near and far band together to support the communities in need. What is needed is money to help schools rebuild, families rebuild their lost homes and for communities to build the infrastructure needed that has been lost in these fires.

What can you do? Anything that will help your students to understand the need to help others when the situation is dire. Be it a sausage sizzle, free dress day, bake sale, whatever it takes to raise a few dollars that can be used to support others. In the next few days, with the help of Sheryl Nussbaum Beach and some words of wisdom from Clarence Fisher, we’ll be setting up a paypal account to direct funds you raise to the Red Cross appeal that has been set up to support those affected. Create a page here and let us know your plans. We can support one another and link our schools to a common cause. Let’s show the world how the education community can use the tools at our disposal to connect and support one another for a common purpose.

Let’s make a difference too and continue to show the power of a network by extending a hand to those that are in desperate need of our help.

Anything is Possible

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I’m so glad that I am learning and teaching in a time when just about anything is possible.

I encouraged my friend and colleague Robin, (also new to International School teaching like me) to email a Canadian author whose books she bought with her from Canada to share with her class.  Her class of 5th Graders have thoroughly enjoyed hearing Mike Wade‘s books read out loud to them during snack time.  I encouraged her to ask Mr Wade to skype into the class and talk to the kids face to face.  It’s was building on the idea of skyping in “experts” that is talked about alot in my PLN. And the worst thing that could happen is no reply right?

So Robin did exactly that.  She sent an email to Mr Wade (Author of And Then It Happened) just yesterday and what do you know?  His wife replied (Mike’s on the road at the moment) and they are really keen to do it.  Just 5 – 10 minutes was all that was asked for and now it’s going to happen.

How great is that?  I’m so thrilled for Robin and her class.  Plus, this is so cool for this friend of mine who had not heard of skype before coming to Bangkok!

One email, one simple request and one heck of a memory to share forever!

Twitter Mosaic

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Get your twitter mosaic here.

h="48" height="48" title="Barbara Reid" border="0" src="http://a0.twimg.com/profile_images/306467758/FANTAIL_normal.jpg" /> /> /> /> height="48" title="Linda (Mrs C)" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/198541379/tulips20_normal.JPG" /> /> width="48" height="48" title="Keisa Williams" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/266314062/green_normal.jpg" /> "48" height="48" title="Ann McDonald" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/69667347/ann1_normal.jpg" /> /> height="48" title="Sharon Harper" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/67758224/me_normal.jpg" /> src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitter_production/profile_images/288860322/Photo_95_normal.jpg" /> href="http://twitter.com/cheesynz">

Get your own Twitter Mosaic here:

Thanks to Jane’s E-Learning Pick of the Day for this one!

The Result of a Request

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Some days are just an absolute joy to be at work.  Wednesday was one of those days.  Wednesday was the day the doors of our classroom got wide open and in streamed a little bit of Iceland.

I was really lucky to meet and get to know Alan Levine (aka CogDogBlog) at the Learning2.0 Conference back in September this year, in Shanghai, China.  During one of our many meet ups with fellow conference goers staying at the Forte Hotel, Alan happened to mention that he was going to be spending a month looking after the house and animals of an Architect, in Iceland.  My ears and my “cheekyness” levels immediately perked up – so I asked him if he would skype with us when he was in Iceland.

On Wednesday we did just that.  At 7.30am Thai time and 12.30pm am Icelandic time, these two vastly different places in the world  connected.  One blasted by heat, the other being buffeted by wind, rain and snow.  Today my students got another piece of the “exploration and how/where does that fit into the world I’m living in right now” puzzle.  And it was such a simple thing to arrange.  All you have to do is ask. (Nicely of course).

Skype with Iceland

My students were great participants.  They watched the skype conversation via our smartboard if they weren’t up at the laptop asking questions.  We’d prepared our questions before hand and that helped the conversation flow.  Even when we’d gone through all of our original questions, more questions followed and I was impressed with the thought and maturity that they all displayed.

Skype with Iceland

When talking with students at the end of the day most talked about how Mr Levine helped them believe that each and everyone of us really is an explorer,  that you don’t even have to find a place that hasn’t been discovered yet.  If you’ve never done it or been there then you ARE exploring it.  Even some places can be explored many times over and you still find things you never found the first time.  Of course meeting Skinna was a definite highlight for the girls – and everyone will not forget that a meal of reindeer meat is coming up next week for Mr Levine to try.

Thank you Alan, for letting us ask you all those questions.  Enjoy the rest of your time in Iceland and I’m looking forward to seeing what Strawberry, Arizona looks like through the lens of a skype call!

Collaboration Anytime Any Place

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How cool is this?

Need to plan?  Need to collaborate but can’t seem to find a time when you’re all free at once?

Invite one colleague over for dinner, skype in your other colleague who lives an hour away and open google docs.  One collaboratively planned project ready to start with students.

collaboration
Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

Simple? – YES!

Collaborative? – YES!

Fun? YES!

Seemed like work?  NO – well, not to me.

LAN-it-Up

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I love the play on words for LAN – traditionally known as Local Area Network – and it’s use lately for local educators getting together to watch and discuss the K-12 Online Conference offerings.

The extremely wonderful Kim Cofino, graciously hosted ISB’s first K-12 Online Conference LAN party last Saturday morning, in downtown Bangkok. She’d already downloaded most of the videos, set up the TV and sound-system AND had breakfast on the table with helpful supplies from us all.  Of course I must mention that Kim has a presentation along with another fabulous educator, Jen Wagner in this years K-12 Online Conference.  “Connecting Classroom Across Continents: Planning and Implementing Globally Collaborative Projects” in the Kicking It Up a Notch strand.

Bangkok K-12 Online Conference LAN Party

The conversation was flowing, rich and authentic as we shared with our fellow colleagues what we thought might be of interest to them to watch.  The two presentations decided upon were Chris Betcher’s  and Alice Barr, Bob Sprankle and Cheryl Oak’s Keynote in the Getting Started strand.  This was to be the 3rd time I’d seen Chris Betcher‘s presentation “I Like Delicious Things: an introduction to tagging and folksonomies“ and STILL I learnt more tips from it.  The amazing Silvia Tolisano skyped in from Jacksonville, Florida and did a fabulous job of explaining the difference between delicious and tagging to one very keen teacher sitting in the room who really wanted to understandwhat she’d just witnessed in a presentation.

Our LAN party was so successful and so authentic that it was decided we just could leave it at one party.  This format is now set to become a regular occurrence, rotating between venues close to school and venues downtown.  It will always be open for everyone, anytime they feel they can make it. There’s a wealth of talent and knowledge and ideas out there just waiting for us to tap into. And the conversations that arise out of just watching a presentation for 12- 15 minutes is phenomenal! I really can’t think of a better way to receive personal Professional Development.  What’s even better is the  K-12 Online Conference is available anytime convenient to you.  Heck, there’s still K-12 Online Conference 2006 and 2007 presentations on my list to watch that I still have access to!

Here’s to the next LAN party in two weeks time – if you live in Bangkok – hope to  see you there – if not, and you think you might want to skype in and be part of the conversation, we’d love to hear from you!

I wonder which presentations we’ll watch this time?

LAN-it-Up in Jacksonville, Florida

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It was an absolute pleasure to be invited by Silvia Tolisano to skype-join in the conversation at their school’s K-12 Online Conference LAN party “last night” or earlier this morning (for me.)

LAN
Uploaded with plasq‘s Skitch!

The timing was perfect – albeit they were having a wine (early evening) and I was having a coffee (early the next morning), the conversation was very interesting and most enjoyable.

My understanding of how Silvia had set up the LAN party was there were several rooms set up with various conference presentations running in them so that teachers could choose which presentations interested them the most.  Then when those presentations had been viewed, everyone met together in one room and discussed what they watched and what they understood or took from it.

The power of sharing ideas, thoughts and understandings, whether you are having conversations face to face or skyping into them is so strong.  The power of discussing what you’ve seen, what you’ve heard and how that affects you is even stronger.  There were presentations I heard teachers talk about that I hadn’t considered watching but now I will because I’m curious and inspired by their thoughts.  I’m now personally connected to some of those teachers even though the chances of us meeting face to face are relatively small.

If you haven’t considered watching K-12 Online Conference 2008, I really think you ought to.  And then find someone who’s watched it too and have a conversation with them – they don’t even have to be living in the same place as you!  Better still, inspire someone else to start watching K-12 Online Conference presentations too.

2008-2009 KC3 ~ Kids Creating Community Content Contest

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Calling New Zealand Middle School Teachers, I received this email in my inbox yesterday.  Unfortunately, as you are aware, I’m no longer teaching Year 7 or teaching in New Zealand, so I told Bev I would pass this onto fellow NZ colleagues.  If you are interested, or know someone who might be interested please follow the link given below.  It sounds like quite a worthwhile project contest.  It made me wish (just for a minute) that I was still in NZ.

I noticed your name on the CILC Collaboration Center and wanted to extend a personal invitation for you to consider participating in the 2008-2009 KC3 ~ Kids Creating Community Content Contest.  KC3 engages middle and high school students in authentic research, presentation skills and use of videoconferencing technology.  The contest is standards based and asks that students look at their community and explore ways to share something unique about their area with other students around the world.  Complete details and project requirements can be found at http://kc3.cilc.org

This might be a great way for students at Taradale Intermediate School to connect with kids from various geographic areas.  Let me know if I can answer any questions you might have.

I encourage you to submit a program as we’d love to have schools from New Zealand participate,
Best regards,
Bev
Bev Mattocks
Consultant / Project Manager
Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration (CILC)
Transforming Learning Through Collaborative Technologies