Stargate+Website+and+Beyond

Essential Questions:
//How does the Stargate website work?// //How can the tools found in Web 2.0 benefit classrooms/teachers/students? How does the concept of "21st Century Learning"apply to Stargate?// //What are some of the cautions needed in applying Web 2.0 tools?//


 * I. Introduction:**
 * Betts' "Emotional Temperature" (from Virginia Satir)
 * Informal survey:
 * Prior to this session, how many have: || Huh? || Tried it out || Regular user ||
 * Blogged? ||  ||   ||   ||
 * Used Wikis? ||  ||   ||   ||
 * Used RSS feeds? ||  ||   ||   ||
 * Used "social" bookmarks? ||  ||   ||   ||
 * My background/experience/interest
 * Library directive ([|21st Century Learning @ Your School Library])
 * Family
 * Hobby
 * Motivation/inspiration: [|Did You Know/Shift Happens] [video] by [|Karl Fisch] and [|Scott McLeod]

The [|Partnership for 21st Century Skills], in summarizing the work of numerous organizations and researchers, identifies three broad categories of essential skills:
 * Goals of 21st Century Learning - Things you already do!
 * Information and Communication skills (including media literacy);
 * Thinking and Problem-solving skills (including systems thinking, problem identification and formulation, curiosity, and creativity);
 * Interpersonal and self-directional skills (including accountability and adaptability).
 * [|Changing Paradigms], (July-August 2007 issue of //Educational Technology)// by Marc Prensky //- author of Digital Game-Based Learning and creator of over 50 software games for learning.//
 * "today’s kids hate being lectured to, but what do they want from their schools? The answer, they tell us, is community. Working in groups. Doing projects. Having the opportunity to share their ideas with their peers and hear what their peers have to say. Being challenged. Being asked interesting questions. Being listened to. Being respected."
 * "The twenty-first century is all about creating and inventing – tools, art, videos, writing, programs, simulations – and sharing those things with an increasingly connected world."
 * [|eSchool News Online], Aug. 14, 2007
 * "Released Aug. 14 by the National School Boards Association (NSBA) and Grunwald Associates LLC, the survey shows that 96 percent of students with online access [ages 9-17] use social-networking technologies. Nearly 60 percent of these students report discussing education-related topics online, such as college or college planning, learning outside of school, and careers. And half of online students say they talk specifically about schoolwork."


 * II. Web 2.0 Tools**
 * Blogs
 * 1) Purpose - Communication
 * 2) Benefits - [solicit input] Free; Platform/Forum; Tracking: Continuous Review; Connecting Ideas
 * 3) Examples - [|Personal]; [|Stargate Website]
 * 4) Walk through log-in and blog a welcome to parents &/or students
 * 5) Other resources/ideas:
 * [|Classroom 2.0/Blogging]
 * Support Blogging: [|Blogging Options for Educators]
 * [|Blogging in Their Own Words] - Karl Fisch video
 * Stargate Web pages
 * 1) Value/benefit
 * 2) How to create documents
 * 3) How to upload images
 * 4) Other ideas/procedures
 * Wikis
 * 1) Purpose "[|Wikis in Plain English]"
 * 2) Benefits - Collaboration; Easy: Always on the Web - [|Newsweek article]:Power In Numbers: How wiki software is reforming bloated bureaucracies and changing the face of communication. //"All these applications, however, have only tapped part of wiki's potential. Imagine millions of people connecting with world leaders and thinkers to discuss, debate and collaborate on everything from global politics to climate change."//
 * 3) Example - [|Stargate Conference]; this one
 * 4) S/G Wiki - Use this one for this presentation
 * 5) Other resources/ideas:
 * [|Classroom 2.0/Wikis]
 * **Vicki Davis' Tutorial** from the K12Online Conference, 2006
 * Feeds
 * 1) [|Purpose] - Keeping up, no matter where you are
 * 2) Benefits - Can review recent changes quickly
 * 3) Examples of Symbols (RSS on blog; XML on Stargate)
 * 4) Feed readers - [|Google Reader], [|Bloglines], [|Feedreader], [|Feedburner]
 * Bookmarks
 * 1) Purpose - Identify sites to which you may want to return; Use tags to sort
 * 2) Benefits -Switch computers easily (home/work); share with colleagues easily
 * 3) Examples [|del.icio.us]; [|Technorati]

III. Internet Safety
 * "We know, however, that the best way to protect children is to teach them to guard their privacy and make wise choices. Education will promote safe use of the Internet, not laws blocking access." - http://www.ila.org/netsafe/

Introduced in class; supported by Library From [|Illinois Library Association] & MySpace: bookmarks for parents and children available in Library, at Front Desk** Other resources: IV. Conclusion -** >> Through teaching them to use these tools to publish, are we also teaching them how to use these tools to continue the learning once that project is over? Can they continue to explore and reflect on the ideas that those artifacts represent regardless of who is teaching the next class? Can they connect with that audience not simply in the ways that books connect to readers (read but no write) but in the ways that allow them to engage and explore more deeply with an ongoing, growing community of learners? Isn’t that the real literacy here? >> It’s not just the Read/Write Web, is it? It’s more than that...It’s the Read/Write/Connect/Reflect Web as well. It is, in the words of [|Jay Cross] ... > >> “What can //you// do?” has been replaced by “What can //you and your network connections// do?” Knowledge is moving from the individual to the individual and his contacts. (18) >> >> By Christopher Harris -- [|School Library Journal], 5/1/2006, "Say good-bye to your mother’s school library" >> "On the face of it, we’re talking about using blogs and podcasts. The heart of the concept, though, is not about the tools, but rather the communities and the conversations that they make possible...."
 * Be anonymous
 * Protect your information
 * Avoid in-person meetings
 * Think before you post
 * Check comments regularly
 * Be honest about your age
 * [|Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use]
 * [|Cyber-Savvy Teens] (on Nancy Willard's blog)
 * Internet Safety - (Ben Wilkoff, Language Arts Teacher at Cresthill Middle School, Highlands Ranch)
 * Blogging Rules - from classes of Ben Wilkoff,
 * [|Internet Safety] - National Crime Prevention Council
 * [|Stop Cyberbullying]
 * [|Safe Digital Social Networking] by Wes Fryer
 * From [|Will Richardson]
 * From //School Library Journal//


 * Food for thought: "[|Machine is Us/ing Us]" video

Links:
[|Five weeks to a social library] [|Learning 2.0] School 2.0 [|Classroom 2.0]

With thanks to[| Barry Bachenheimer], West Caldwell, NJ