Camden Digital

Perhaps you have been following for a while in Twitter.  If you have, then you have probably noticed as with expository writing and blogging, there are several types of tweets.  If you are only twittering with your family, ”Heading home from work.” might be completely appropriate.  However, if you plan to use twitter to build your professional learning network,  with each update you should endeavor to add something of value.  Remember, this is no different than a conversation with friends; so, say something helpful, interesting, or just plain entertaining each time you update. 

For those of you who plan to use Twitter to grow your professional learning network, John Welsh at “The Digital Time offers the new Twitterer suggestions for writing successful Tweets.   Another resource that you might find helpful (especially, for those like me who like a little structure) is Nicole Nicholay’s Tweet Plan for making Twitter a valuable part of your professional learning network tools. 

Do you have a Twitter tip or tutorial that you’d like to share with other Twitter users?  If so, post it here at Camden Digital.

Tags: Twitter

While I was home for the Fourth of July, I helped Brenda B.  set up a Twitter account.  Brenda, who is a high school English teacher but who is NOT a recent college graduate (She taught a grandchild of a former student last year.), is committed to using Twitter and trying to find ways to use it as an effective instructional tool.  It doesn’t take long to set up a Twitter account, but it is helpful to know a few of the basics.

1.  Go to Twitter.com and click on the Get Started—Join! button: Enter your username, password, and email address. Click on the I accept. Create my account button.

2.  Import your address book:  Twitter will give you a chance to see if some of your friends are on Twitter by checking your online address book. However, your contacts will have to be in one of the supported services: GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, or MSN.  Unfortunately, GroupWise is not one of the supported services.

3.  In the upper right hand corner, select the Settings tab. Now enter your full name in the “Name” field. Make sure the “Time Zone” field is set correctly. Enter your location. Do not check “Protect my updates” unless you only want those whom you approve to be able to get your updates.
 
If you have a digital photo of yourself on your computer, you can upload a photo of yourself onto your site.  (A 150×150 pixel photo has been suggested for ease of use.  iPhoto, Skitch, ImageWell, or any other photo editor will allow you to crop and size your photo to the proper proportions.)  Click on the Picture tab, select your file, and click the Save button.

4.  Start following some family or friends: If you haven’t done so already, add your family and friends by clicking in the ”Find People” tab at the top of your home page. You can type in a username or first and last name. When you do, you will get a list of the Twitterers who match your search criteria. You can also do a more advanced search (for example, you may want to find Twitterers who live in your same location) on the Twitter search page.

Another suggestion is to select the Suggested User tab at the top of the Find People page.  I selected about six people from this list to follow when I first opened my account.  I encourage you to think of including experts in fields that you have an interest.  You can begin “following” them by simply clicking on the Follow button.

5.  Learn the basic commands: Think of Twitter as a room full of people, all sitting in a circle having a conversation. When you send an update, you are speaking to the entire group, and everyone can hear what you have to say.

Replies. If you want to direct your comments to one specific person in the circle, but loudly enough that everyone else can hear, you use the “Reply” function. You address the person by using their Twitter user name preceded by the “@” symbol. For example:
          @jpassante Can’t wait to see the photos of your travels. 
Everyone who is following me will see the message, but I am specifically directing it to Joe.

The thing about replies is that they are “clickable links.” If a person who is following me, clicks on one of the names, they will automatically go to that person’s Twitter page; this will give them the opportunity to follow that person, too.

Direct Messages. You can also use the “direct message” function. This is like whispering in one person’s ear; only that person can hear you. You are directing the message to them and to them only. For example:
       d cclark Can you bring some rock salt for the icecream churn?

6.  Start twittering: So now, you are all ready. It’s time to start Twittering. The main thing you need to remember is that the message can be no longer than 140 characters long. (If you use the Web page, the entry field will automatically count your characters.)  Lastly, practice good Internet safety; you are involved in conversations with huge numbers of people.

7.  Enjoy the experience!  Happy Twittering!

If you would like to help a someone establish a Twitter account, here is a You Tube Video that will walk you through the steps.  Do you have some valuable resources that introduce Twitter?  If so, post here at CamdenDigital and help our teachers enjoy their Twitter experience

Tags: Twitter

Always on the lookout for applications that can run on not always the newest of computers and that are relatively inexpensive or even better, free, Joe P. and I decided to starting “twittering.”  But, how are you to start to do something when you are not even sure what it is that you are to start doing? Going to Twitter’s web page provided us with all the information that we needed to know to get started.

What is Twitter?  According to the site’s home page, “Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?” 

Now, you might ask, “How am I supposed to add another thing to my overflowing list of things to do and check?”  Well, for my friends and family, twitter has almost replaced email.  Also, the very essence of Twitter is its simplicity.  It requires very little time because the message can be no longer than 140 characters.  Because the text must be concise and to the point, it provides you the opportunity to update your community several times a day with very little time invested.

As I look back to my journal of my first days using Twitter, my goal was to select a few persons or organizations to follow for thirty days, (I am typically reticent about posting comments.) and at the end of thirty days, I would list the advantages that I found using Twitter.  This would determine if I would continue as a twitterer.  (Do you think that is a noun?)

Thiry days later, these are the observations that I recorded:
1.  I can keep up with my family and friends easier using Twitter than I could using email.  (My brother receives his Tweets on his cell phone as text messages.)
2.  I have meet new teachers who seem to be on the cutting edge of technology use in the classroom.
3.  It provides me with a new forum for staff development and learning that is free of charge and timely.
4.  I am participating in technology that is having a huge impact of our society.

At the end of May, I set a new goal for myself.  I would send a tweet at least once a day.  At the beginning of July, I set another goal of five tweets each day.  (We will see!) 

If you would like to follow me and see if I meet my goal, simply open an account at Twitter.com and follow me.  It’s so easy to do!  Are you ready to give Twitter a try?  Comment here at CamdenDigital and let us know! 

Tags: Twitter

I was there in April when Ophra tweeted for the first time and when Ashton Kutcher’s celebrated his victory over CNN as the first tweeter to gain one million followers and when John Ridley commented on Twitter.  Now, you may think that the world of Twitter belongs to that of celebrities; however, this is far from the truth.  On a Larry King appearance,Kutcher emphasized, “I think it’s really important that Twitter is not about celebrities. It’s not a platform for celebrities… It’s really about everyday people having a voice.”  That certainly stimulated my thinking about the use of Twitter in our classrooms.  I know as an English teacher that I was constantly encouraging my students to find their own voices.

When I saw the Time Magazine that featured Twitter lying on the coffee table of a English teacher colleague, I asked if she was using this application in her classroom.  She shrugged nonchantly and replied, “Don’t use it.  Don’t really even know what it is.” 

Maybe, Twitter is another Web 2.0 tool, that although having a fierce presence in the everyday lives of a huge part of society (For Example, Iran), simply has not made its way pass the filters and into the classroom.  Let us know here at CamdenDigital, if you have embraced Twitter as a communication tool into your classroom instruction.

Tags: Twitter

As a part of my morning ritual, having a big mug of nice hot coffee, I always check my email.  Like many of you, I have several email accounts that I need to check.  I also want to check events that are news worthy and several blogs that I find interesting.  I also need to review my calendar and my to-do list.  I may even need to pay a bill.  How do I find time to do this before the work day begins?  Pageflakes.

Pageflakes, a community-driven personalized webpage, welcomes me each time I log on to the Internet (I set my web browser to recognize it as my start-up page), and this handy Web 2.0 tool allows me to take care of all my morning must-do’s in one place. 

Now, while it is a great personal tool; teachers immediately saw its value as a item for their teaching toolbox.   Using Pageflakes for Teachers, teachers can create an online teaching environment at no cost and without any programming skills.  As Pageflakes gained popularity within the teaching community, the developers responsed by providing us a prepopulated web page designed especially for teachers with some exceptional “flakes.”  There is a Grade Tracker, a Class Schedule, a Class Calendar, a message board, a To-Do list, a class blog, and online reference tools such as a dictionary, a translator, and Wikipedia search.  Flakes are available for numerous photos, videos, podcasting, RSS feeds to numerous news and education sites and blogs.  The teacher simply chooses flakes that will enrich their teaching and arranges them on his or her customizable webpage…And remember, it’s FREE!

After completing the page, teachers can choose to use the page privately or we can use the PageCasting feature to share our page with “selected individuals” (It could be students, parents, or colleagues.) or with the “world.”

According to Dan Cohen, CEO of Pageflakes, “Pageflakes is enabling educators around the world to teach and interact with their students and with each other.”  This is certainly in keeping with NC’s 21st century goals.

Along with Pageflakes, there are other customizable start pages; such as Netvibes and iGoogle.  Check out The Teacher’s Desk if you are unfamiliar with Pageflakes and would like to see an example.  If you are using a customizable web page in your classroom, post here at CamdenDigital and share your address if it is public and how you are using it.  We look forward to hearing from you.  

Tags: pageflakes, paperless, web 2.0

Having completed setting up my gradebook and attendance list in Engrade, I am ready to proceed to preparing my classroom syllabi, the backbone of every class.  As a teacher, I rarely had the luxury of teaching only one course. (Note..syllabi).  Instead of heading to the copy machine to run a syllabus for each student,I will be creating an online syllabus using a wiki. 

There are many advantages of an online syllabus.  It provides for continual access both students and parents.  It allows the teacher to expand, refine, and modify on an on-going basis.  It allows the teacher to link materials, such as lectures notes or documents that he or she developed, to the syllabus.  The teacher can also link to websites and documents that others have created that support the students’ learning.  The online syllabus also works as a communication tool between the teacher and the student.  By creating “mail to” links, it provides for the transmission of assignments and a forum for questions and answers.  An online syllabus saves trees, and most importantly, it never gets lost.   

By creating an online syllabus, it will no longer act as a mere map of your course work, it will become one of your most powerful teaching tools.  Have you created a online syllabus?  If so, share your design with us by leaving us a link in your comment on CamdenDigital.
For suggestions on Creating a Syllabus, visit the Site of the Day.

Tags: Syllabus

For many teachers the appearance of computers and the expectation of technology integration leads to much confusion.  For many it has amounted to not much more than a word processor hooked up to a glorified overhead projector.  For others, it has led them to embrace a digital pedagogy and the paperless classroom.  

Many say there’s no way this can be done; the resources are simply not available.  However, there are quite a few teachers in our system who have all the resources needed to be paperless.  The first difficulty in creating a digital environment is connectivity.  Connectivity is not an issue for our school district, and once you are connected, almost everything else can be done online for free.  Since Internet-based applications are not dictated by time or place, the students can work individually or in clusters, in the media center, the computer lab, the classroom, or from home.  They can work anytime of the day or the night and any day of the week.  The second issue is hardware.  Some of our classes are already designed for one-to-one computing; and all of our classes have at least one computer. So I am going to proceed as if this classroom is to rely primarily on a teacher computer and two student computers.  The classroom does have at its disposal a computer lab and a COW (Computers on Wheels).  All of these have Internet Access. 

The first step would be to set up a classroom administrative management system.  Engrade is a set of free web-based tools which allows educators to manage their classrooms on-line while providing parents and students with twenty-four hour, seven day a week access.  This easy to use system includes a free on-line gradebook, a free on-line attendance book, a free on-line assignment calendar, and free, secure, online messaging so that you can communicate easily with parents. 

With this done, administrative tasks are taken care of easily.  What was your first step in creating a digital environment?  Share with us here at Camden Digital.

Tags: administrative task, Engrade, Paperless classroom

Remember the day when the aroma of a just mimeographed paper wafted into the classroom ahead of you (ahhh…those were the days!).  Remember the day when the xerox machine was made available for teacher use.  (ahh… this meant that the students didn’t have that sensory experience of just mimeographed paper, but it did mean no more using hairspray to try and remove those purple stains from your clothes!)  Remember the day when a computer and a printer arrived in your classroom.  (ahh…this meant being able to print small amounts without having to leave your desk!)

Recently, the tightening of budgets has forced us to look at ways of decreasing our dependence on copiers and printers.  Could paperless classrooms be the answer?  Environmentalist have been encouraging this movement for quite a while now in an effort to create a green classroom, and techies say this is the age of Web 2.0.  Many teachers espouse a  paperless classroom as a great idea for several reasons:  it saves money (copies and ink); it saves a tree; it allows you to be more organized (You are not dealing with all those pieces of paper.); and its creates a great opportunity for collaboration, and it allows students to use skills they use on a consistent basis outside of school. 

For the most part our students are multi-taskers; they can talk on a cell phone, write an email in one window, and write an instant message in another window simultaneously.  Using their iPhones they edit their MySpace pages, watch videos on YouTube, and download their favorite tunes to their iPods.  However, when they come into the classroom, we ask them to put aways their skills and return to the pencil, notebook, and textbook.   Maybe you have considered that it is time for us educators to allow our students to trade in their pens and pencils for a keyboard and a mouse, and you are having students use the computer as a work-processing tool.  However, your need to push print or have a hard copy of all submitted works is still with you.  How can you begin to create a paperless classroom environment? There are many free tools and many features in programs to which you already have access that can help you in your quest. 

So let’s reject that old copier and that old printer as often as possible; turn on our computer and let the journey begin!  What tools have you used as you began the transition to a paperless environment?  Tell us so we can join you in a quest to become paperless! 

Tags: Paperless classroom

If you have been to the central office lately, you may have experienced a conversation via Skype.  If you are unfamiliar with Skype, it is a free to download and free to use software program that permits users to make FREE high-quality audio “phone calls” to other Skype users over the Internet.  (It use voice-over IP; the same technology used in the phone system at CIS.)  Skype also offers videoconferencing features; the only additional equipment that you need is a Webcam.

I think Skype has tremendous potential for classroom use.  Can you imagine your students conversing with a published author?  Teachers can quickly and easily invite guests from all over the world to speak with their classes.  A sick student could participate in classes from home, or a teacher could run her classes from home.  Teahcers can use Skype to connect their classroom with classrooms in foreign countries.  Students in all subject areas could collaborate in and share presentations with students in different school districts, states, or even different countries.  What better way to engage students to write and communicate with an authenitc audience, an audience that, until only recently, has been inaccessible to them. 

Over the past few month, students in neighboring Dare County have been involved in projects  using Skype as the primary technology tool.  You can read more about their projects at:
http://www.darecountyschoolsonline.com/moxie/hello/NHES-kinder-skype.shtml
or
http://www.darecountyschoolsonline.com/moxie/schools/3_13/NHES-Skype-21st-Century-2.shtml
If you have been using Skype as a tool in your classroom, we hope you will share your projects at CamdenDigital.

Tags: Skype, videoconferencing

Aaron Campbell (2003) has outlined three types of blogs for use by teachers in their classes:

The Tutor Blog is directed by the teacher and is a means by which he or she conveys information.  The information may be limited to a syallabus, daily assignments, homework, and general class information.  Students are normally restricted to making comments. 

The Class Blog is a blog space shared among the teacher and the students.  Because they all use the main area to write, it works great as a collaborative discussion space. 

The Learner Blog, the third type, requires the teacher to set up and moderate an individual blog for each student. This is the student’s personal online space and they are encouraged to write frequently and to read other classmates blogs and post comments their.

So, why would a teacher want to use blogging in the classroom?  The reasons that come most readily to my mind are that it allows for students to write for a real audience and  by reading their peers’ work and comments the amount of time spent reading increases.  Also, blogs could act as online writing portfolios.  Both the students and I could return to previous written works and evaluate their progress in the course…and no more dropping their writing folders and pages flying all over the floor. 

So, why do you blog with your students?  Comment at Camden Digital and let us know.

Tags: blog