‘Where good ideas come from’ and Comments4Kids

I watched this powerful promotional video for Steven Johnson’s upcoming book – Where good ideas come from.  (thanks to @cbetcher and twitter for this link).  Aside from the interesting presentation, the ideas were clear and it made me want to read the book when it comes out.  One point Johnson raised is that great ideas take time to evolve – developing from a ‘slow hunch’ and they come from collaboration with others.

It got me thinking – over the past few months I have become aware of the value of certain hashtags in Twitter.   I have written about these before, but more recently I have discovered the  use for very specific purposes, such as promoting student blogs and encouraging comments such as #comments4kids.

I have seen first hand the power of a tweet with this tag – enormous responses (48 comments to one class post) are achievable via the advertising that Twitter can supply.

From my understanding, the concept of this hashtag came from @wmchamberlain through a series of tweets and a Wiki developed that has now been extended in the new Comments4Kids Blog.  It was an extension on the #FF idea, created to fill a need.  From my reading of the history of this hashtag, it seems to me to be a good example (in a small way) of Steven Johnson’s theory.  Okay, it didn’t take years to create but it was a ‘collision of hunches’.

‘Chance favours the Connected Mind’
S Johnson

I am grateful to these ‘connected minds’ and I believe that some of the ‘spaces of creativity’ that Johnson refers to are blogs and Twitter.  There are certainly many connected minds here – the coffee house of today’s thinkers ?

Another way to use Twitter #chat

Screen shot 2010-07-16 at 6.40.14 PMI have noticed people tweeting about #edchat and not really understood how it worked.  I assumed it was just another hashtag to sort and order tweets.   Until today, when I saw tweets announcing #mathchat about to start.  What better way to learn?   So I asked the simple question on twitter , “How does #mathchat work?” and immediately had responses from 3 or 4 people advising that all I need do is add a column for #mathchat in Tweetdeck and go with the flow. 

So I watched, as simple questions were asked and a wave of information and more questions flowed in.   It went for an hour (although I didn’t manage to stay tuned that long).  People suggested strategies, ideas, links and thoughts about teaching maths – indeed today’s subject was Differentiating the Maths Class.    I could not keep up with it and felt a bit overwhelmed.  Thankfully, I found out that the chat from these events  are recorded and provided for later review on Wikis.   These Wikis are also the organisation tool for the chats.  Once again this highlights to me how generous these educators are with their time – it takes time to set these things up and administer them and I am grateful for the people who do it. I guess our gratitude can be shown by getting involved and encouraging the conversations and contributing both questions and answers.

The chats are scheduled weekly and the wikis I have found so far for Twitter chats are ( I assume there are many more) :

#edchat  This seems to have been the first (but I may be wrong).  A good description appears on Shelly Terrell’s Teacher Reboot Camp

#mathchat  Just new but if the first session was anything to go by it will be popular.

#elemchat    Topics with specific interest to elementary teachers.   Tania wrote about this on her blog , saying “My reasons for wanting to help start #elemchat were really quite selfish – I was hoping to learn from other teachers, get some leads of effective strategies and approaches to improve my own teaching.” 

I believe it is quite the opposite, most definitely not selfish, Tania has provided another avenue for teachers to connect.  No teacher can feel that they cannot get help when avenues like this exist!   All it takes is taking the risk and asking the first question or offering the first piece of advice.

Next time I see a hashtag with # —chat, I will have a slightly better understanding although still plenty to learn.

iPods in Education (Mobile technology)

My school recently received 10 iPod Touch mobile devices and it was a bit unexpected (came free with MacBooks).  Obviously, we were not going to waste this opportunity so, I began researching their use in Primary classrooms.  I found that we were most definitely not the first school to start using them.  In fact, there had been schools in our state and overseas using them (or at least earlier iPod’s) for more than 3 years and probably longer.

As is the nature of innovative educators, the people who have used them are keen to share their experience and learning.  There are many excellent practical resources available.  Names such as Tony Vincent, Louise Duncan and Jenny Ashby are common in this field .

Many of them are summarised and linked on  Slide2Learn – http://slidetolearn.ning.com/ .

Twitter at work at #slide2learn
Twitter at work at #slide2learn

This Ning is publicising a conference that is currently taking place in rural Victorian town of Shepparton.  Another opportunity for learning face to face, that I cannot accept, however I am taking in as much as possible from home (nursing a daughter after dental surgery).  The Ning will be broadcasting online sessions and hosting forums and chat on relevant issues (as it has for many months.  Twitter is once again at work (see my previous post) #slide2learn.

My main concern with introducing these tools into the school was that we were adopting the right pedagogy, not just giving the students a toy or gimmick.  I am already inspired by these small devices potential.  I saw Louise Duncan’s presentation “The power of mobile technology in learning” at the DEECD Innovation Showcase and she highlighted the potential and provided many practical examples of their use.

Our current situation at school is the dealing with the practical issues of managing – synching, downloading, securing and charging multiple devices.  Tony Vincent’s Learning in Hand website and podcasts provide great practical advice on managing multiple machines.  We are in the very early days of adopting them.   To date, I have not spent any money on apps, using only free versions, but I will definitely be purchasing some of the more vital tools.  The drawback of the free versions is that they often come associated with advertising or are limited editions (designed to make you buy the full edition).   Having said that, one free App that is a highlight so far is StoryKit – so simple to use (a storywriting tool – record sound, add text, add photos, add images etc)

Over the next few days, I hope to get many more ideas about how these tools can improve our teaching and learning !   Following and thankful to all those tweeting  #slide2learn

Twitter and all that jargon

#Hashtags for beginners

Just read Blogging in the fourth dimension post  in which the blogger tells how her PLN has grown in the first week of twittering.  As a relatively new Twitter user (I have been a twit for some time ;)) I remember looking at tweets a while back being overwhelmed by the jargon – the hashtags #, mentions @, hyperlinks etc, all made it look like gobbledygook.  When I first installed Tweetdeck – I thought that it was like translating a foreign language with columns and symbols everywhere.

Gradually, I have come to understand some of it, definitely not all.  The first, I will write about are hashtags #

Hashtags allow you to sort tweets. They are a filter, much like categories in a library catalogue and tags in Delicious etc.   A fantastic use of these is when they are used by people at events.

In April this year,  I did not attend the ACEC2010 conference in Melbourne, however, I participated in many streamed activities and found ideas and links due to the tweets that people who did attend the conference were sending out.   ACEC2010 actually provided iPod touches to participants and encouraged this collaboration.  It was fascinating watching tweets from people who were in the same room listening to keynote addresses and tweeting quite different reactions to what they were hearing.  Some say that this can be invasive technology with people focusing on the tweets instead of the room around them, but for me, at home, it made me part of the event.

Currently, in Denver the ISTE Conference is occurring.  The Twitter feed is frenetic (following ISTE2010 and ISTE10 as they don’t seem to have decided on one).   Participants are reflecting, commenting, networking recording and sharing – it is amazing.  I am grateful to the people who are alerting the world to their blogs, to new material etc.  It is a true example of collegiality – thank you.

You can search and follow hashtags from Twitter.com and via the Twitter applications, eg Tweetdeck.  In Tweetdeck you can easily add a column that filters all tweets with tag you want to follow.

TweetDeck ISTE hashtag

Some hashtags that I am aware of include

#edchat

#ISTE2010

#VicPLN – the professional development program that I am undertaking

Anyone with more suggestions ?

Other things I have learned about Twitter include sorting out who to follow, re-tweeting and using mentions @ – all make the experience richer and so worthwhile.

Reflecting on Personal Learning Networks

“The effectiveness of integrating ICT pedagogies depends on high levels of interactivity amongst and between students and teachers, and between students and the technologies they use.”  Learning in an online world

I would like to add another dimension to this – the effectiveness also requires a level of interactivity between the teacher and other teachers as well, and I believe that this needs to be a broad level of interactivity, beyond the scope the school and even the direct school network. 

Many schools are realising the potential of involving their students in Global projects, having their students actively involved in communicating beyond the classroom walls – I believe (and others have already stated) that this will have most impact, when teachers themselves have modelled and experienced this by their own involvement with teachers/educators beyond their classrooms and schools.

The rise of Web 2.0 has brought to light how good teachers are at collaboration – I believe we are one of the best professional groups at taking up with Web 2.0 technologies and using them to our advantage.    There is a plethora of educational collaborative spaces available and an enormous array of educators freely giving of their expertise and time to others. 

The scope for this involvement is wide – simple Twitter followings, RSS feeds to relevant Blogs, Wikis and Nings, subscriptions to podcasts, membership to mailing lists are just some of the way we can see what is going on in the outside world.   Many teachers are using them with students and increasingly teachers are using them to broaden their own experiences.

A powerful Personal Learning Network (PLN) does not have to be large but does need to create contacts with like minded, similar interested people.   One thing I have noticed about schools, is that despite attendance at professional development days etc, many teachers stay quite insulated within the particular school in which they teach.    Wonderful things happen within schools, but they are limited by the experience of those in the group.   

We need to choose the level of involvement that we can manage – that will ensure a feed of new ideas without information overload.  I feel that it is something that evolves.  You follow a person on Twitter, watch for a while and judge if their contribution to your learning is valuable. You elect to continue to follow or not.  You subscribe to a podcast and listen to only the relevant editions.  You skim read a Google reader account for relevant blog entries.   You soon develop a feeling of where the ‘good stuff’ is coming from and who you want to maintain a connection with.  That ‘good stuff’ is entirely subjective – no two PLN’s will be the same.

Then, the element of reciprocity comes into place.  When do we stop being a total consumer of other people’s ideas and thoughts and start to feel confident to contribute content as well?  I believe it was Jenny Luca who used the statistics that 1% of people contribute new content, 9% add to other’s ideas and 90% consume only.  Teachers on the whole seem to be quite shy about their achievements – we are not accustomed to professional flattery or comments.  Rarely do we have the opportunity to give other teachers feedback on their teaching – although some practices involving Evidence protocols are currently encouraging this.

The ability to publish to a potential world wide audience requires a certain confidence that takes a while to develop.  How do we know when we have something worthwhile to contribute if we don’t take the risk?  I regularly see examples of wonderful teaching/learning moments – I wonder – should those teachers be sharing those successes with others?  How would sharing it help that teacher or those who read it? Where does this all fit in to the busy life of a classroom or specialist teacher?  How important is this reflective practice for the teacher themselves as well as the audience lucky enough to share it ?

So I think I see the benefit of a PLN is at least twofold – a wonderful source of inspiration and professional development as well as an opportunity to step out and risk that we might have something positive to contribute as well.