Do you have something to say?  Want to share it with a larger audience? Blogging may just be your ticket.  But how do you start?  This is a question I recently faced as I started Cultivating the Educational Technologist blog.  It’s a little bit finding your voice, identifying the tool you want to use, and promoting your blog (because, whats the point, if no one is going to read it!).

I would like to argue that part of finding your voice is reading what others’ are writing in blogs.  What’s being talked about and how are people expressing themselves with blogs.  How provocative are they?  How are people navigating the sticky wicket of offering criticism without losing their jobs!

Finding good blogs can be time consuming.  If you find a good blog, it might lead you to other blogs, but this circuitous process can be painstaking.  Scott McLeod, a professor at Iowa State University, and accomplished blogger himself, launched a valuable project this summer in which readers add their favorite blogs, by discipline, to a wikispace.  It is a great starting point to find blogs that might tie to your interest or content area.

There are lots of online blogging sites you can use to create your own blog.  Two of the most popular free blog services are Blogger (now a part of Google) and WordPress.  I decided to use WordPress purely on aesthetics—Wordpress allowed me to manipulate the look and the feel of the page more, giving me a cleaner, simpler look.  Setup literally takes just minutes!

Promoting your blog—that’s a topic for me to develop more in the future, since upon this writing, I think my blog has been visited less than 35 times.  Clearly, I need to blow my horn more!

Have you been thinking about doing something new and different with technology this year in your classroom or professional life?  Are you daunted by the overwhelming choices of Web 2.0 tools out there?  Should you start blogging—or using a wiki (whatever that is) or a Ning (now there’s a name for you)—or what about this Moodle thing everyone is talking about?  What if you make the wrong choice and invest hours and hours only to discover this is taking way too much time for what you’re getting out of it? You decide to search the internet for ideas and land on Cool Tools for Schools and it just reinforces how overwhelming making a choice is going to be!

I’d like to think that you might start with this blog to get some ideas! A colleague recently sent me a fascinating Edutopia article entitled Ten Top Tips for Teaching with New Media loaded with some of the best tools and wonderful ideas for implementing them in the classroom.

Now, I consider myself somewhat savvy when it comes to Web 2.0 tools—my job as an instructional technology specialist demands that—but I was excited as I read Ten Top Tips to discover several tools that were new to me combined with creative ideas for using them with teachers and students.  Yes, the article did confirm many that I have already been using, like Voicethread, but then it went on to describe ways to use Voicethread that I had never even dreamed of!

If a Web 2.0 tool is new to you, Ten Top Tips helps you understand what it is and how it might be used.  For example, social bookmarking is popular, but what is it?  And why should you care? How can you use “delicious” or “diigo” professionally or instructionally? (See Tip #10, Use the Buddy System).

Or maybe you have wanted to start a collaborative project with another school but didn’t have any idea where to start?  Tip #4 Think Globally will get you thinking outside the box.

Are you still intimidated by the idea of  trying something new!   In the end,  you just might want to corral that tech-savvy friend over lunch and see what they are using.  After all, the buddy system isn’t a bad way to start!

In 2005, my then superintendent, asked me to come up with a vision for technology integration, and, “oh,by the way, present it in one month!”  I was just 3 months into my current job as instructional technology specialist in Curriculum and Instruction, and, needless to say, I was a little overwhelmed.  I came up with an idea to create short descriptions of different aspects of technology integration, and to call them “Picture this” scenarios.  At the time, much of what I wrote seemed like so much wishful thinking.  Our classrooms had very little technology and our teachers felt very little commitment to using the technology they had.  But as I look back over the last four years, and review how far we have come down the path of technology integration, I’m amazed at our progress.  We are well on our way to realizing many of the “Picture this!” scenarios I described.   I encourage you to read what I wrote then–and to help my district now envision what direction to head during the next four years. Vision for Technology Integration-2005

There are things that I didn’t anticipate four years ago.  I didn’t realize the significance that learning management systems like Moodle would play in the classroom.  I didn’t envision the blossoming of Web 2.0 tools, and how much impact they would have on the very nature of learning and teaching.  I didn’t anticipate how inexpensive laptop computers would become nor the growth of handheld devices like iPods.

Help me envision 21st century learning environments.  Does every classroom have an interactive whiteboard?  Are the walls of the classroom dissolving as students use more online learning environments that connect them to the world?  Are students being provided inexpensive netbooks, or moderately priced laptops? Or have we leapfrogged over laptops entirely and students are using handheld devices?  Are textbooks a thing of the past with all books online and being read with eReaders or handhelds?

This is a Prezi presenation.  Check it out by clicking on the above image. I think Prezi offers a nice change of pace from PowerPoint that will definitely capture our students attention?

It also allows us to be more free flowing in our presentations.  We can jump from one idea to another–show relationships and details–and at the same time set a sequence to follow, and return to if we deiviate.

Prezi is web-based, but presentations can be downloaded so that it isn’t dependent on a good internet connection.  Your presentations reside in the “cloud,” meaning you can work on them from any interent connected computer.  If you want to download them, you can.

Have you used Prezi before?  Are their other alternatives to PowerPoint that you use?  Share your ideas in a comment below.

(View the above video from the 10 minute mark to about 20 minutes to see how Chris Lehmann thinks technology is contributing to 21st century learning)

21st century learning is about so much more than just the hardware in the classroom.  We can install the latest internet wired multimedia computer, connect it to a video data projector and document camera, and display everything on the latest interactive whiteboard—and the teaching and learning in the classroom may still remain largely unchanged from what it was in the year 2000.

So how can 21st technology tools change the very foundation of our teaching and learning?  Chris Lehmann, principal at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, presented how his teachers are making this transformation. (see August 23 for my first post about Chris Lehman’s NECC presentation: School 2.0).  Chris believes that technology needs to be ubiquitous, necessary, and invisible—that technology tools don’t teach—rather they should be changing the way we teach..

What does 21st century learning look like?  Chris and his teachers focus on research, collaboration, creation, networking, and presentation and employ evolving Web2.0 tools in the process.  Here are some of the tools Chris identified—but you can bet these will change as new technologies emerge every day.

What tools are you using in your classroom that you could add to this taxonomy?

iPod Touches are amazing devices—wireless connectivity to the internet, free educational applications that are expanding daily, the functionality to view video and sound podcasts—Apple has educators thinking this is the computing device of the 21st century.  Last spring, I took the lead in showing teachers how these handhelds could be used in their classrooms as our district piloted a cart of 40 iPod Touches in each of our district high schools.  For as much fun as I had exploring all that the Touch could do, I was skeptical of how it might be used in the classroom because it really felt like, at most, a receiving device that teachers could deliver content but not much more.  Students couldn’t easily create using the iPod and they couldn’t record sound.  They couldn’t cut and paste information that they found.  For all the applications that were available, none really did a good job stream-lining the exchange of documents between teacher and student.

Touch 3.0 and Evernote dramatically change the school equation!

With the release of 3.0 operating system for the iPod Touch this summer, I have now been converted.  iPod Touch 3.0 now enables students to copy and paste text and images and record sound (with the addition of a third party mike).  Add to this functionality the Evernote application, and suddenly the iPod Touch has become an interactive tool for capturing and sharing information—whether it be text, pictures, or sound!

Evernote is a free application that resides on the iPod—but is also resides on a website created by the  teacher for sharing and exchanging content.  Teachers can copy text and images into “notes” that then is synched to each student iPod.  Text that is shared is reformatted for viewing on the iPod, thereby eliminating constant resizing and zooming.  Students can also create “notes” that can be tagged by the student so that teachers can sort by assignment and class as students turn in assignments.

Imagine students now researching using a Touch, uploading content that they cut and paste (and that includes a citation of the source!).   Imagine an English Language Learner student “copying” vocabulary that is new and pasting it into a note for further exploration.  Imagine a world language student doing a voice recording of a lesson and turning it into the teacher by posting it as a “note” in Evernote.

I can’t wait to demonstrate the possibilities with high school teachers!  Do you use Evernote in the classroom?  Post comments that demonstrate ways you use this application.

As I start a new school year, and I have a more laid back week before the students arrive, I often think about the big picture of what this “school” enterprise is all about.  This summer, I had the opportunity to connect with a school leader who helped clarify my thinking.   Chris Lehmann, principal at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia, presented at the National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) in Washington in July.  His talk about progressive pedagogy and 21st century tools really rang true for me–particularly when thinking about technology is transforming teaching and learning.

Chris states that at the center of our work with students is the goal of cultivating thoughtful, wise, passionate and kind students.  What does a school look like if it has these goals in mind for its students?  The first 13 minutes of this video (linked above) explores  his vision for school 2.0.  And although he talks about his high school, and high school students in general, in my mind, his ideas transfer easily to K-5, 6-8, and K-8 settings.

I think we want schools that are inquiry driven, that are student centered, and that approach learning and subjects in an integrated way.  Learning needs to be authentic, and when it is it will lead to passionate and engaged students. Technology needs to be ubiquitous–technology should be a tool for learning, not what learning is about.

Chris Lehmann brings all these ideas forward–and more.  In a future post I will discuss how, in this video, he also helps make the connection of  how technology’s new Web 2.0 tools deepen student inquiry as students research, collaborate, create, present, and network.

You heard it here first–yes, someone from the central office wants you to set your homepage for your browser to something other than the district homepage.

iGoogle is the perfect homepage for you to track the world around you. With iGoogle as a starting point, you can follow blogs, check out the latest news, and track all things Google. To get a Google homepage like above, go to http://www.google.com and click on sign in in the upper right corner. You can then choose to get an account which will have you provide an email and password. You willthen be sent an email confirmaton. Follow the steps to setting up an iGoogle homepage.

To have your browser open to your personalized (another blog will talk about options for personalizing), go to “preferences” under your browser name in the menu bar. Go to main and set your homepage to http://www.google.com/ig.

What is really cool is that you can have your Google Reader appear on this home page. Then, as you click on listings, a pop up of the blog posting will appear to let you preview the content. If you decide you want to read the whole blog, click in and your browser will navigate to that blog posting so you can see all the content.

How to use:
I will check postings in my Google Reader section of iGoogle homepage whenever I open my browser. I often will find something of interest from the blogs I am following. Check out my Aug. 9 posting about two blogs that you can follow in your Google Reader.

How can you ever keep up with the plethora of interesting websites and Web 2.0 tools available to the classroom teacher? Actually, there are educational technologists out there in the blog-a-sphere doing just that for you! I’d like to introduce you to two of them, and show you a way that you can follow their posts with little effort and great efficiency!

Here is a link that will enable you to follow two blogs that post interesting educational websites. For the less adventurous, bookmark this website after you click on it, and you can then return to that bookmark in the future for a continuously updated list of interesting websites.

Preview of Blogs: Best Educational Websites

For the more adventurous
For those of you wanting to venture further down the path of blogs–here are some next steps for staying continuously connected to these bogs. When you click on the link above, you have the option to “Sign in to subscribe”. To sign in you need to creating a Google account–something that you will find very valuable as I introduce you to more and more Google applications. All that is required for a Google account is an email address and a password of your choosing.

Be sure to choose “Get started with Google Reader”. Google Reader is what is know as a blog aggregator, which means that as you subscribe to different blogs, they can be compiled in Google Reader for you to review and read. At this point, you are subscribing to a special blog I have created that brings together two educational bloggers who are reviewing good websites and educational tools.

I’ll be writing more on subscribing to blogs in the upcoming weeks (including how to subscribe to my blog, Cultivating the Edcuational Technologist. For now, I hope you find this first step helpful as you start your new school year.

Couldn’t be a more appropriate place to begin my blog space than at NECC and the Constructivist Consortium kick off event. Ran into Scott McLeod as I settled in and Wes Fryer joined our table. Scott and I go back a ways to the School Technology Leadership Institute that Scott created at the University of Minnesota. One of Scott’s blogs, Dangerously Irrelevant, often focuses on technology leadership. Wes Fryer(the guy with the headset), writes an educational blog entitled Moving a the Speed of Creativity. And the the guy in the red shirt? Not sure who he is…

I’m sitting among master bloggers–maybe some of it will rub off on me!

But why bother blogging. Who is my intended audience and why should they take the time to read what I write?

Its hard for teachers to find their way in this educational technology jungle. For me, I’m constantly in the thicket– reading 5 educational technology journals a month, attending local and national technology conferences, reviewing daily email postings from tech listservs, and previewing software, websites, and a constant array of new Web 2.0 tools.

So, I propose this blog as being a way for me to share my learnings–a way for you to benefit from my filter as I wade through the jungle of new technology possibilities with eyes wide-open to find the best tools for the classroom teacher. I’ll share interesting websites and web 2.0 tools, I’ll explore ideas from readings and conferences, and I’ll try clear a path that delineates the trends worth following.

But the blog can also be a way for us to share. By posting comments, you can add to the dialog, and share your perceptions and learnings as well. I hope you join me on this journey. In upcoming blogs, I will be sharing ways to easily follow blogs (mine and other blogs as well). The last thing I want to do is make more work for the classroom teacher. Reading this blog should be easy and worthwhile–if not, well, turning if off is just a click away!