Which comes first? Breakfast or Internet?

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Today on the Mashable blog, they have a blog post to question readers' early morning habits. They wonder whether readers eat breakfast first or fire up their internet browser first. As I read through the comment thread, it seems that for most of those who responded, the internet comes first. There were even those who would check their email in the middle of the night. I would suggest that this reveals the tyranny of the urgent. Hopefully people's priorities are not becoming mixed-up as they satisfy the demands of the urgent rather than tuning in for what is most important.

I think that using Google Reader to collect what I believe to be important is a way for me to avoid the tyranny of the urgent. I know the blog posts will be there for me to read when I have time. I can deal with them according to my own daily and weekly priorities.

Will Richardson discusses the reasons for collecting all the blogs that you wish to follow into one blog aggregator site (such as Google Reader). 1) Unlike an email account, you will receive no spam on your Google Reader account. Everything you receive there is something you have subscribed to. 2) Since everything comes directly into one location, it is easier to read through many sources of information. 3) If you subscribe to a topic or subject search, Google Reader will bring you anything new that is published on that subject. I think that with RefWorks (the tool I use to keep academic references for me), I also have this capacity to request new journal articles that have been published in my areas of research. 4) Will uses Google Reader to guide him in his professional development journey. (Richardson, 2009) I like this idea. I would like to know

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more about Will's plans for his professional development.

As Will skims and scans the 60 to 80 reads that he subscribes to, he meta-tags those he wants to keep. Google Reader places those feeds into folders according to those meta-tags. Later he can return to read those items in the folders. Another option is to star items which will then be kept in the Starred Item location. Later on, you can return to these items to reread them when you have more time.

Will suggests that if you will be off-line for a while, you can download all of your unread Google Reader items so you can read them away from your internet connection. Download Google Gears at http://gears.google.com/ in order to do this type of off-line reading. Some of us who have been on holidays this summer, could have used this application on our laptops. We could have been catching up on our Google Reader reading while traveling the highways. If you go to this website, you can get Google Reader on your mobile phone. Some people suggest that this is the way they keep up with reading the blogs they subscribe to. They can quickly skim and scan through the blog titles on their mobile phone.

Will Richardson (2007) discussed his use of Google Reader as a type of textbook for himself. He goes to Google Reader and Twitter first thing every morning (but does he eat breakfast first?). He goes back several times each day. He finds that his daily learning process begins and continues with the flow of information from these two sources. He finds that Google Reader "changes the traditional information structures in fundamental ways, and it forces us to be much more involved with the information we consume. I’m no longer just a reader; I’m an editor who is constantly at work in the process of finding feeds to read, determining what’s relevant, trying to connect ideas and patterns, making decisions as to what to do with all of the information I come across." (Richardson, 2007) Will continues to ask questions about his use of Google Reader. These questions would be useful for our consideration as well:

"What’s my optimum number of feeds to read? I’ve gone between 25 and 250, and now at about 60 I’m still not sure if that’s the “right” number. And it’s not just a time factor that determines that number, although that has more to do with it than anything else. T

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he scope of topics and a diversity of views also has a lot to do with it.

How do I not become “married” to the feeds I already have? It would be easy to keep the 60 or so feeds that I have for a long time, but I’m not sure that’s the best strategy. As new voices appear, as my interests shift, I need to be willing to let some old voices go. That’s exceedingly hard, at times, because I don’t want to miss anything, and because I feel connected to those teachers on many levels.

Do I rely too much on a handful of feeds? I’ll admit, while I struggle reading every feed every day, there are a half dozen or so that I try not to miss. I think of these as the ones that do the best job of culling out the important ideas of the day. In many cases, these people are reading many of the same sources I am. I wonder if this makes it even more difficult to read more widely.

How many individual pieces of information can I realistically make sense of? There are days when I could easily find 50 or so interesting, relevant posts or links to sites, and I wonder if that’s always such a good thing. If I were to try to process all of that, will the best filter up?

How do I best organize the information that is most useful? I have a del.icio.us account, and I stow away some snippets of things in various spots. I tag and tag and tag. But this is my most difficult struggle. I’ve yet to find a really effective way of processing all the ideas and links that make it easy to return to later.

Should I read ideas, or should I read people? Stephen Downes advocates for the former, and I can understand why. It’s the concept, the exchange of ideas that is important, not the person so much. Still, I find it very difficult to separate the two, and I do think that knowing the person through the writing adds context to the ideas. But, again, reading people also tends to limit the scope and diversity of the ideas, I think." (Richardson, 2007)

Will continues to struggle with the idea of reading for diversity of thinking and even reading those bloggers whose ideas grate upon him. In a blog post in January of 2009, he

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posed some important questions about reading online. Following this post there is a very important comment thread which contains many ideas about how to allow the cream to arise to the top of what you are reading. When there is such a quantity of information to skim and scan, how do you find the nuggets of gold or the gems that are keepers. How do you allow the quality to rise to the top? I believe that one way I can do this is to star more of the blog posts that I read. Then once a month, I could go through these starred posts. If they continue to resonate with me, I can tag them and store them in folders on Google Reader for easy access in the future.

Will suggests using PageFlakes with students or children to help them to begin to collect the information and reading for the content areas of their interest. He has even done this with his own children.

Mack Male discusses the concept of hyperlocal news. A new wikipedia on hyperlocal content has been created. Hyperlocal content "refers to entities and events that are located within

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a well defined, community scale area and is intended primarily for consumption by residents of that area." (Hyperlocal)

"I think there’s a place for aggregators and curators in the hyperlocal ecosystem. Perhaps another defining characteristic of hyperlocal content is that it is spread all over the place. Aggregators and curators can sift through all of that content to help make it more discoverable." (Male, July 31 2009) I'm not sure whether the aggregators of this hyperlocal content would be technology based or would be people who would search for and meta-tag local content so that others can discover it. I would be very interested in reading hyperlocal content from my city of Saskatoon (picture of Saskatoon bridge at night). This could be people's blogs, websites, Twitter posts, wikis, and nings that have been set up. Maybe I will try to use Saskatoon as a search term on Google Reader and see what comes up.

T Feeder: Top Technology Stories at http://www.tfeeder.com/ is a site that brings together the blog posts that are receiving the most retweets or comments. It shows which stories are boiling, hot, warm, or cold. What comes first: Internet or Breakfast? is a boiling story right now. Here is the link (http://mashable.com/2009/08/10/internet-vs-breakfast/). As I look down the list, I see that Mashable is the blog location for many of these stories. I guess I should put that on my Google Reader subscription list. It looks as though T Feeder has other options which I will have to check out later.

Bloglines was a type of blog aggregator in the past. A recent blog post at TechCrunch shows that Bloglines has not kept up with the times and is on life support at this time. People are better off going with Google Reader. This blog post also suggests that readers have left Google Reader so that they receive reading suggestions directly from Twitter, Friend feed, and Facebook. I would have an issue with this approach. The reading suggestions made to you would be based on the reading that your friends or those you follow on Twitter are doing. They may miss things that I consider important. I will continue to use Google Reader.

Iain Cook-Bonney commented on Richardson's blog post (2007) that as he uses Google Reader, he wonders: "Who do you listen to? How long do you listen to them for?" Cook-Bonney continues by saying: "RSS has indeed become my textbook, and more and more I am finding that my blog has become my 'margin' where I jot down my notes and thoughts." (Richardson, 2007)

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As we continue our use of Google Reader and other forms of RSS feeds, who are we listening to? How are we keeping track of our reflections as we read? And are we reading before or after that first cup of coffee?

References:

Hyperlocal. On Hyperlocal wikipedia page. Online at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperlocal

Male, M. (31 July 2009). Friday musings on hyperlocal news. On Mastermaq's blog. Online at http://blog.mastermaq.ca/2009/07/31/friday-musings-on-hyperlocal-news/

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcasts, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.

Richardson, W. (12 Jan 2009). De-Echoing My Reading Practice. . .Help Wanted. In Weblogg-ed. Online at http://weblogg-ed.com/2009/deechoing-my-reading-practice/

Richardson, W. (06 Aug 2007). Aggregator as textbook. In Weblogg-ed. Online at http://weblogg-ed.com/2007/aggregator-as-textbook/

When are they going to write something new?

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A few years ago I discovered a couple of interesting blogs that I enjoyed reading. I saved them as favourites on my computer. At least once each week, I would return to those blogs to see whether there were any new posts on the blogs. Usually I was disappointed but occasionally I was rewarded with a new post.

Recently I discovered that there is a web tool that will search my favourite blogs and will collect all of the newest posts in one location. It is called a blog aggregator or collector. The one I have chosen to use is called Google Reader. Please watch this video for an introduction to this tool.


When I signed up for Google Reader, I needed a Google account (I used my email account) and a password. I put all of my classmates' blogs into my Google Reader account. (Just copied and pasted each address into the Add subscription bar.) Our professor for this class had suggested that we find five other blogs to follow and collect them with a RSS (Real Simple Syndication) feed. I found two librarian blogs (one by Joyce Valenza and one by Amy Bowllan), Will Richardson's blog, CogDogBlog, and Tutvid's blog. In each case, I went to the main blog page and copied the address into the Add Subscription box.

As I have read these five blog posts as well as my classmates' blog posts, I have discovered other blogs to subscribe to. Currently I have 30 blogs on my Google Reader list. I read each of my classmates' blog posts twice a week and make comments on their posts as well. I try to read all of the other 23 blog posts once each week. However, now that I am trying to keep up with Twitter as well, I sometimes fall behind in reading all of the recent blog posts. However, I feel fortunate to not be in Jude's position. He has 558 subscriptions on Google Reader. He would like to trim it to 400. He says, in a comment on Weblogged, "Sometimes I think I was designed for an infor

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mation overload. If I feel overloaded, I just mark them all read and start over again another day." (Richardson, 12 Jan 2009)

I have not yet tried the idea shown in the video above--searching for a topic in the Add Subscription box. At the moment, I prefer to follow people rather than topics or ideas. Maybe later on, as I refine my pursuit of information, I may begin to search for ideas as well as for people.

Some of the additional blogs that I have added since the first 14 required for this class, came because of following comment threads on others' blog posts (especially Will Richardson's comment threads). I am also picking up on other influential thinkers by following Tim O'Reilly's recommendations on Twitter. This is how I came across danah boyd.

Earlier this week, when Twitter was down and I realized that they had been under attack, I looked to one of the blogs I follow (TechCrunch) for information. TechCrunch is obviously written by a number of people since they post at least 6 times each day. On Thursday, I put Google Reader on List view and read the titles on the TechCrunch posts. I found one about Twitter and got all the latest news and speculation about the reason why it was down for so long that day. As well, I got a lot of chuckles from following the comments beneath the post. (I posted an account earlier of this hilarity. (See http://rielliott.blogspot.com/2009/08/hilarious-comment-thread.html)

As I follow these blogs, I am beginning to get a sense of where to go for certain kinds of information. Seth Godin's blog posts usually look at life from a commercial point of view and yet have universal applications of truth. In Will Richardson's blog entries, he pulls together things he's been reading and thinking about. Then he shares his observations. I find his blog so valuable, not just for his thoughts shared so transparently and yet professionally, but for the people who converse with him about those thoughts. The comment threads are amazing.

What do I look for in a good blog to follow? I like someone who posts at least twice a week. I like someone who has lots of comments, especially if their posts are about ideas. Obviously, the blogger can't ensure that they will have lots of comments. One would need many readers in order to have many people to comment. As we all know so well, not everyone who reads a blog post, comments on it. (I comment on my classmates' blog posts but rarely on anyone else's.)

Just a few more random thoughts about my process of using Google Reader to help

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me keep up with my blog post reading. I already explained that I read my classmates' blog posts twice each week. In this class, we are required to post on two topics each week. Once I have completed my posts on a particular topic, I read each of my classmates' blog posts on that topic. On my blog, I have a blog roll in which my classmates' blogs appear. Whichever blogger has the most recent post, appears at the top of the list on my blog roll. Besides the name of the blog, the title of the most recent post appears as well. There is a time given for how long ago the post was created (4 hours ago, 2 days ago, etc.). This morning when I met with two classmates for breakfast in Edmonton (at the High Level Diner), one of my classmates told me that she often looks at my blog roll to keep track of our classmates' blog posts.

I begin with the first blog post on my list. Often there are two or three posts on the same topic. I read them all and comment on at least one post. I make notes as I read so that my comments are specific to that post. Once I have finished all of the new posts for that blog, I click on Google Reader. Then I click on that blog and choose "Mark all as read". I go back to my blog roll and click on the next blog on the list. Sometimes this process takes a couple of days since some of the blog posts are really long. (Mine are long, too.) By the way, if I have any readers from outside the class, you may enjoy reading my classmates' blogs as well. Just click on any of the titles in my blog roll on the right hand side of this blog post. Then you can learn more about the latest tool that we are studying in this three day period.

As I think about my use of Google Reader, it is made possible by the fact that I am a good reader. I can quickly skim and scan for the information I need and discard the information that is less relevant. I am willing to read more slowly and reread text that is important and yet more difficult to understand. There are

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different rates of reading for different purposes: in order to memorize--fewer than 100 words per minute (wpm); in order to learn--100-200 wpm; in order to understand--200-400 wpm; skimming for information--400-700 wpm. Skimming is very superficial and comprehension of meaning declines with skimming. The suggestion has been made that good readers know when to speed and when to slow. When new information is being presented, this is the time to read for learning. However, when information is repetitious, it's time to skim. (Link)

As we teach our students to use RSS feeds like Google Reader, we also need to teach them to use different reading rates for different purposes. We need to teach them to skim and scan and discard the unnecessary information. We need to teach them to slow down in order to learn and understand on a deeper level.

Here's an idea for junior high or high school students in their use of Google Reader. Each student would set up an account. They would select a topic that they are passionate about. Some possibilities could be homeless people, fashion, American Idol, chess, the Jonas brothers. The

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y would set up a feed for resources and new information to come into their Google Reader account each day. Every day they would make a few jot notes on the feeds that come in. Then they could report their findings to the class in some way. This would give each student the opportunity to gather information on a personally interesting topic but using a blog aggregator.

Unfortunately, many bloggers cease to publish new posts after a while. The blogs that I had on my favourites a few years ago, have all ceased to publish new material. Therefore I can't use my amazing new tool, Google Reader, to keep current with those bloggers' thoughts. Hope

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fully the people I am now following, will continue to publish regular blog posts so that I can keep on learning from their musings about the world we live in. Thank-you to all you bloggers out there. Keep up the good work!

References:

Richardson, W. (12 Jan 2009). De-Echoing My Reading Practice. . .Help Wanted. In Weblogg-ed. Online at http://weblogg-ed.com/2009/deechoing-my-reading-practice/

Shape Shifters Par Excellence

In Tony Hillerman's novels, he often refers to shape shifters which were part of the Navajo belief system. Yesterday, as I tried to simply explain wikis to my Mom, I told her that it is a website which you can't change. Then, at the touch of the edit button (as long as you have some type of access to that site), it changes into a document that you can change. Once you have made your changes, the shape shifts again at the touch of the save button. It becomes a website again. This is brilliant and elegant. It means you don't have to know html code or even how to use a web page creation page. As well, there is a place on the internet for your web page and your website and you don't have to worry about uploading it yourself.

Eleven years ago, I created the first web page (with about 400 linked pages) for my school. I downloaded some kind of program from the internet and worked away. I had teachers work with students to produce work for the internet. I believe I also scanned student art for some classes. Then I had to link everything together and ensure that all the links worked. Lastly, I had to work with our head office IT people to get the whole thing uploaded to the internet. Where were wikis when I needed them? (Actually, that process was very satisfying creatively. I inserted all kinds of animations and moving gifs. I could create the pages exactly how I wanted them. There is probably a way to do that with wikis but most of the pages are produced using a given template so they tend to look quite similar to each other. The focus is more on the information provided rather than on an aesthetically pleasing end result.) After I produced that first web page, I taught the community school coordinator how to continue the process and she took it over. She soon far surpassed her teacher in creating amazing web pages.

Wikis become an online collaboration tool for creating, correcting, and publishing information to the internet. One person can begin the process (a first draft, so to speak) with others chiming in to deepen understanding, fix errors, and branch off in new directions. In this way, it is different from a blog post. An individual in a blog creates something that belongs to him or her. Then other people may bring in their thoughts and changes to the original concept. However, that first person's blog entry does not change. Sometimes the comment thread supersedes the blog post itself in importance as the community puts in their two cents worth. However, on a wiki, that first post can be changed (shift shapes) over and over as new contributors add their understandings. Wikis can be online conversations as contributors decide what the

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wiki will say together.

There may be some issues with wikis. There is a way to provide various levels of privacy on wikis. However, many of them are open for anyone to edit. This can lead to vandalism and inaccuracy. I loved the story in Will Richardson's book (2009) of the professor who tested out Wikipedia by placing thirteen errors on several Wikipedia posts. Within a few hours, all of the errors had been corrected. Since the next editor of the page can see which changes have been made and revert to an earlier, correct version, I think this again is a strength of wikis.

Some wikis may not be up-to-date or current. There is a way to see how recently a wiki has been edited. As well, those who are setting up a new wiki may put all of the infrastructure in place first so that there are many links to pages with only a name at the top of a page. However, if a wiki creator jumps in (as I did with my wiki on Caswell Homes) and starts creating pages willy-nilly, each page has information on it but the organization system might be a mess from the start.

Since wikis are co-constructions, ownership of product is a problem. I could see that at a university, where professors are expected to publish and present original work, it may be very difficult for them to move into a wiki world. If you give away all of your ideas for free, who will pay for your ideas. Who will read the books you write or pay to listen to you at conferences? Actually, giving away your ideas for free can widen the audience for your ideas. Will Richardson has published two editions of his book and people (like me) are buying it. If Will was coming here to Saskatoon and I had to pay to hear him speak, I would do it. But back to the collaborative work on wikis, the lack of ownership can lead to writing by committee. It may be disjointed and inelegant. It seems to me that the focus of wikis is generally upon disseminating information rather than upon beautifully crafted pieces of writing. (You can't be all things to all people.)

The tone in wikis should be neutral. Even if someone has a personal point of view, it should be expressed in a measured and calm way--not a nasty, vitriolic (biting, caustic, sharp, bitter) way. We can agree to disagree but don't be rude while you're disagreeing. On Saturday, as we were returning from the Rider game, we were listening to the post game show on the radio. Many callers to the show were upset about various aspects of the game. Usually the radio personnel would engage with them in discussing the events of the game. However, one caller was nasty and said we should get rid of the coach and the quarterback. The radio host said good-bye very quickly to that gentleman. So there is a way on wikis, as well, to explain your point of view but in a neutral manner. Teachers need to work with students to develop skills in digital citizenship--polite, democratic. Students need to develop good value judgments about the work they produce and the work they edit on wikis.

Another issue with using wikis in the classroom is lack of control for the teacher. (Prensky, n.d.)
"Never mind that new technologies give our kids access to whole new worlds--they may not be worlds the teachers can control." Even the difficulty of marking individual assignments removes some of the control teachers have over work and learning in the classroom. I think the benefits far outweigh the lack of control. One teacher said that in the future he may include a wiki aspect for each assignment within his class because the level of cooperation and collaboration and quality product which his students are inspired to create.

One last issue with the use of receptive wikis in the classroom (like Wikipedia) is the teacher's fear that they are inaccurate. (Wasn't it only recently that Google allowed wikipedia sites to come up when someone did a search for a topic? This means that Google feared that the popularity of Wikipedia sites would drive them to the top of the search list, driving other, more reliable sites further down. I guess that Google has realized that Wikipedia sites are accurate and acceptable when people are searching for sources of information.) In Richardson's book (2009), he debunks several myths about the inaccuracy of Wikipedia. Besides the aforementioned case of deliberate errors inserted by a professor (quickly edited by the online community), experts were asked to read Wikipedia entries within their fields of expertise. They found the entries to be very accurate.

So how could a teacher use wikis in the classroom? They could be used as receptive tools for the teacher to gather information or ideas for the practice of education. Eduwiki was one site I discovered. This site was created on July 20, 2007. There are now 2103 pages in the main section. The home page alone has been edited 904 times with the most recent edit on that page made a few days earlier. From that page they host free online workshops for learning to use wikis. There are certification levels within these workshops. There are other places in which teachers can sign up for free online classes to learn to use wikis. There is a five week course which begins today in blended learning in the classroom. Check out the schedule at this link. They have a list of the participants--30 signed up, many from North America. There was one participant from Mongolia. At Learning4Content, educators from around the world are invited to join them. They say

WE also extend an open invitation to all educators around the world to join us as well.

Open Education Resources (OER) is becoming much more pervasive in tertiary education. Developing content which can be shared within one institution, or across continents represents a powerful paradigm shift in the distribution methods of learning content and courseware from traditional publishing models to those which are open and collaborative in nature. Major initiatives from leading institutions to provide open courseware further support the growth of this segment of online learning.

There is a video (through Blip TV) called Wikieducator: Learning 4 Content which is fascinating as people from Morocco, Australia, and Israel check in for the class. They are having two special guest speakers. One speaker talked about WikiEducator. The video is over 50 minutes long so I didn't watch the entire program. When students had a microphone they were able to speak. Most of the students just wrote their chat questions and comments on the side. The facilitator invited the students to introduce themselves. I heard someone from Germany speaking and introducing herself. We think we are scattered geographically in this class but this online class is even more scattered.

At Learning4Content, it suggests that you could ask your employer/institution to sponsor a L4C Workshop - by contributing access to a computer laboratory for the training. That would be great for a school system--they could contribute the computer laboratory and L4C would provide the professional development.

In my Grade 2 class, I thought of some ways I could use wikis. Last year we learned about bugs in our class. Each student selected a bug, found information about that bug, did jot notes, and finally created a document with a few sentences about the bug. Then they inserted some pictures from the internet. If I were to do this project again, I would have students insert their documents into a wiki. Then parents could see the results of our work. Students could even work on the project at home where their parents could help read the books or websites to help them find more information. Students could read each other's information.

Towards the end of the year, our class worked on a collaborative story. Three students drew pictures of the characters who became the main characters in the story. (The characte

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rs were Batty, the black bat; Wall-E, the rusty robot; and Slippy, the Emperor penguin) We worked on developing our story as we sat and talked about what problems these three friends could have as they interacted with each other. We decided that they were going on a field trip to the zoo. Each of them had a favourite snack (packed by their mothers) and were eager to share their snacks with each other. Batty's favourite-mosquitos; Wall-E's favourite-rusty nails; Slippy's favourite- sardines. Bingo--we have a problem (I had taught them that every story needs a problem). Solution (after much discussion in small and large groups) was that they all love chocolate-covered doughnuts and stop to buy some on the way to the field trip. Next we developed the characters. And on and on it went. At the end of the school year, I sent all the information home with the students and asked them to keep working on the story (or more chapters of it) in the summer. Oh, if only I had known about wikis. We could have put everything as we went along on a class wiki. The cross-checking we did from group to group (Hey, Wall-E group

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. Does Wall-E have any pets? Would Batty eat Wall-E's pet insect?) could have been done more easily as we collaborated on the computer. Next time, eh?

I did find an example of a collaborative on-line story created by a grade 3 and 4 class. (Story) The story is about a tennis ball called Terry. The class is from Australia. If teachers need more ideas about using wikis and other technology in the classroom, the K-5 Computer Lab Wiki looks like an excellent resource. It is well-organized with a table of activities. There is a template provided so that teachers can add additional computer activities with links to them. There is a Wiki about books for children (http://booksforchildren.pbworks.com/Books-for-Children).

For students in university or university professors, there is a wiki with activities for University classrooms produced by an engineering professor. There is a wiki about using digital research tools. There are many ideas about turning voice into text (transcribing) which will come in handy for me next year as I interview people for my thesis. I need an easy way to turn voice into text.

Last night as I talked with my extended family about some of the learning I have done in this course, I wanted to send them to my blog to learn about some new tools. My sister-in-law owns and operates two care homes for senior citizens. Some of the residents have families living far away. The families are always wanting pictures from the latest birthday party or event at the care home. My sister-in-law tries to send pictures attached to emails. I told her about Flickr and how easy it would be to put pictures up on Flickr for those families to view. I told her about using tags on the pictures so she could create a picture set for each resident. Then I worked with Mom on adding information to my Caswell Homes wiki. I have also been thinking about talking with the librarian in charge of the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation resource center. Possibly my blog could be a catalyst to encourage other teacher-librarians in developing their Web 2.0 skill set.

All of a sudden the audience for my blog changed. I'm not preaching to the choir anymore. I may be presenting information and the process of sharpening tools to those people who aren't going through this process with me (like all my lovely and handsome[1] classmates are). I want to go back and fix some of my blog posts. I want to ensure that I explained enough of the process so that others can follow my steps and missteps. If I say, I uploaded this or that, I have glossed over the process and just presented the final product (Ta Da). How will that help anyone else? So from now on, I will try to write my blog posts for a new audience.

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As I return to the title of this blog--Shape Shifters Par Excellence--I think it is we teachers who really need to shift shape. We need to invite our students to bring a tasty dish for the Potluck Dinner on the Web. If the dish needs more salt, someone will add it. We need to move away from the banking model of schools (Paulo Freire) in which the teacher knows it all and attempts to pour it into the student. We need to value the cultural capital and stores of knowledge which each student brings from their world into ours. Then together we can build a storehouse of knowledge in which everyone contributes and everyone belongs.

Reference:

Prensky, M. (To be published). Search vs. research or the fear of the Wikipedia overcome by new understanding for a digital era. Retrieved at http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Search_vs_Research_-_Marc_Prensky

Richardson, W. (2009). Blogs, wikis, podcast, and other powerful web tools for classrooms. Thousand Oaks, California: Corwin Press.

Toolbox bulging. Why Wikis?

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As I approach each new tool within this alternate universe of Web 2.0, I write two words at the top of my page--Receptive and Productive. What can I take in or receive using this tool and what can I produce using this tool? A few tools back (before my tool box became so heavy), I learned about videosharing. I treated this as a receptive tool. Our professor, Jennifer, suggested that I should have created a video to upload to the internet myself. Since then, I have thought about creating or producing something with each tool.

However, beneath my reflections on the receptive and productive possibilities with these tools, there is a underlying awareness of the nouns and verbs of our practice. In Will Richardson's blog post of July 12, 2009, Marc Prensky made this comment:

“Verbs” are the skills you, I, Ravich, and everyone else thinks people should know, and learn as students. They include the skills you mention above: to collaborate, to solve problems, to think critically, to be creative, plus many others: e.g. to persuade, to present logically (I list 50 in my new book.) These verbs or skills, as Ravich points out, don’t change very much over time.

“Nouns,” on the other hand, are the tools (aka technolgogies) people use to practice and do these skills. Nouns have always changed over time, e.g. memorizing to writing, papyrus to paper, quills to fountain pens, handwriting to keyboarding. Today nouns are changing extremely rapidly: Powerpoint to Flash, email to IM, Myspace to Facebook to Twitter, encyclopedias to Wikipedia, local disks to cloud, reading to watching short video, laptops to smartphones, etc.

Image via Wikipedia

In my view, our goal should be that our learners use, to the extent possible, the best and most up-to-date nouns (tools) to learn and perform each key verb (skill). Older tools often still work for a time (e.g. books), and others work less well (e.g. slide rules). But technology will continue to provide us with better nouns for each of the verbs.

In teaching, our focus needs to be on the verbs, which don’t change very much, and NOT on the nouns (i.e. the technologies) which change rapidly and which are only a means. For teachers to fixate on any particular noun as the “best” way (be it books or blogs, for example) is not good for our students, as new and better nouns will shortly emerge and will continue to emerge over the course of their lifetimes. Our teaching should instead focus on the verbs (i.e. skills)students need to master, making it clear to the students (and to the teachers) that there are many tools learners can use to practice and apply them." (Comment by Marc Prensky)

As I approach this new tool (noun) of wikis, how will I be able to use it to help myself and my students or learning community to develop the important skills (verbs) for life and learning?

References:

Prensky, M. (2009) Comment on The Larger Lessons. Posted July 12, 2009 at http://weblogg-ed.com/2009/the-larger-lessons/

What is an RSS Feed?

The next part of my learning is how to subscribe to an RSS Feed in order to have new entries in blogs coming directly to me each day. I went to Google.ca and typed in RSS Feed. The entries I got were far too detailed for me. However, I noticed on the right that I was given the o

Image via CrunchBase

ption of using Google Reader. There was a short video that gave me some pointers. Now I am going to try to use Google Reader and will report as I go.

After fumbling around a little, I realized that I needed to click on Add Subscription. Then I could enter the URL of the blog and click on Add. The name of the blog then appeared under subscriptions. The first blog I subscribed to was Will Richardson's (the author of our textbook). He sounds like a "let's jump on the bandwagon" kind of guy. This obviously appe

Image via CrunchBase

als to me since I like my own bandwagons. In his blog from yesterday (July 6) he says "I’ve got a mental stack of blog posts piling up on a bunch of seemingly random though thinly connected topics on NECC, the environment, note taking with Evernote, my kids’ schooling, the death of RSS and other stuff which I’ll hopefully get to at some point here". You just have to love a guy like that. He has a mental stack of blog posts piling up. That is so delicious. I love the image of all of his thoughts colliding and those neutrons firing in his brain. He continues his thoughts with commenting on something he read that morning. I will enjoy reading his blogs. They will force me to think.

Now my next challenge is to find some more good blogs. For me a good blog would have entries almost every day. In Will Richardson's preface to our textbook, he mentions some educator bloggers. I look up Pat Delaney but can't find a blog by him (or her). However I reach the School Library Journal site and discover Amy Bowllan's blog. Her most recent entry is about a small town library that she visited on her vacation. The archive of past blogs stretches down the right hand side of the page. I decide to subscribe to her blog. However when I cut and paste the address into the subscription URL, it does not work. I notice that at the top of the School Library Journal page, there is a tab for RSS feed. I decide to try that. Sure enough, I scroll down and there is the RSS feed for Amy Bowllan's blog. I use that to subscribe.

Before I go searching for more blogs, I must confess that my daughter, Michelle, took my list of names from Will Richardson's preface and did some initial searching for those people's blogs. Then she emailed me the addresses. So far none of them has actually worked but oh well. (Later on Alan Levine's address did lead me to his blog. Thanks Michelle.)

I found another web log (also on the School Library Journal) in which the author talks about the buried treasure in her past blogs. She suggests a mechanism for blog authors to resurrect those buried blog treasures under four different headings: Rants, Resources, Reflections, and Revelations. She calls these blogs, MEMES. (Reference)


Alan Levine on his blog CogDogBlog complains about online seminars which have not been user friendly or very sociable for him. He says, "Does anyone get what the “social” part of social software is about? People, relationships, proximity."(Reference)

The last blog I subscribe to for now is George Siemens at elearnspace. I think his blog is above my head since he refers to lots of technical matters and 95 page government reports. However, he gives links to all the items he is referring to and is very opinionated. This may be a good reference blog for me.

I am not sure how Google Reader actually works now that I have subscribed to five blogs. Do I need to go to Google Reader each day to see the latest on all of the blogs? I guess I'll find that out tomorrow when I check into it again.

Image by Fr Antunes via Flickr

I also plan to subscribe to all of my classmates' blogs so that I get the latest from each of them as well. It's a good thing I love to read.

Now it's time to quote a song from Sound of Music:
So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye
I leave and heave a sigh and say goodbye -- Goodbye!
I'm glad to go, I cannot tell a lie
I flit, I float, I fleetly flee, I fly
The sun has gone to bed and so must I
So long, farewell, auf Wiedersehen, goodbye
Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye.