Friendly Neighborhood Tech Guy

Digital Citizenship with Vicki Davis July 1, 2009

Posted by sjknight in 21st Century, NECC09, teaching.
Tags: digital citizenship, Digital Generation, internet safety
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[Cross Post from FCCPS@NECC]

What a way to end my first NECC Experience with a great BYOL on Digital Citizenship. Although the technology leaders have discussed Internet Safety and Technology Literacy this year…Digital Citizenship was not really part of the discussion….it will be and now I can chime in with something intelligent (doesn’t happen very much for me…but I love meetings!) because I was presented with resource after resource from three presenter that knew their stuff.

This session featured more “Backchanneling” with a resource called – http://www.chatzy.com/. I loved it, but did I hear what the presenters were saying…somewhat…no, not really! Although this could be a helpful tool in the classroom…maybe! I was impressed how the presenters would answer questions, via Chatzy. While the other presenters were presenting. It was also cool to have everyone in the room have the ability to share links of what they are doing with Internet Safety & Digital Citizenship at their schools.

I did walk away with a lot of stuff I plan on using as a teacher and plan to share with others who see the importance of preparing our kids (no matter how young or how much social studies they need to learn) to members of a global online society.

BTW-I also Twittered all the links that were shared and freaked out a few of my twitter followers…I twittered more in that hour then usually twitter in a month.

1- Diigo (http://www.diigo.com/) – Delicious who?!?! This social bookmarking resource rules. You can create groups and share out your llinks…Please join my EdTEch Group @http://groups.diigo.com/groups/fccps_ed_tech

2- Woogi World (http://www.woogiworld.com/) – Like Club Penguin (Social Network for kids) without the Disney vibe. Still need e-mail accounts register (so a site to promote with fams).

3- SecretBuilders (http://www.secretbuilders.com/) – Second Life/Worlds of Warcraft for kids – Soon will have a education version where accounts can be created.

4- Dizzywood (http://www.dizzywood.com/) – Virtual world for teens…free to start by then they get with monthly fees to get the cool stuff

5- Adina’s Deck (http://www.adinasdeck.com/) – Great DVDs for middle and high

6- Digiteen Project (http://digiteen09-2.flatclassroomproject.org/) – Awesome resource for middle schools working in a global collaboration. Lists the 9 Digital Elements of Citizenship

a. Access

b. Communication

c. Literacy

d. Security & Safety

e. Etiquette

f. Rights & Responsibilities

g. Law

h. Health & Wellness

i. Commerce

7- DigiParent (http://digiparent.ning.com/) – A great way to promote social networking with parents…making them join and social network.

8- http://sites.google.com/site/vcisresources/Home/resources-for-students/ru-cybersafe – A great poster for the lab and classroom-I hear that Sparrgrove has a great poster printer!

9- Teacher Wiki – http://southozsue.wikispaces.com/Digital+Citizenship – great stuff

10- Teacher (from Illinois) Wiki – http://mrsa.wikispaces.com/Internet%20Safety%20Curriculum%20Resources – VA required Internet Safety to be taught in all schools in 2006…Illinois in 2009

11- Teacher Wiki – http://ad4dcss.wikispaces.com/ -

12- Okay…Okay, who is going to weed through this stuff for the good stuff?!

I love sessions that make you think and give you work to do…highlighting these resources with the right teachers at the right time is now the challenge.

Talks Clay Shirky: How social media can make history July 1, 2009

Posted by sjknight in 21st Century, TED, Web 2.0, teaching.
Tags: Digital Generation, TED, Twitter
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Exciting time…are our students ready for this type of news…YEP! So we need to be!

Effective Leadership in an Era of Disruptive Innovation with Scott McLeod June 30, 2009

Posted by sjknight in NECC09, teaching.
Tags: leadership, mcleod
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[Cross Posted on FCCPS@NECC]

As you might have noticed, I am a bit of a Scott McLeod fanboy…totally awesome that he posted on my earlier blog post. I find his blog and twitter to be very helpful as a future administrator and current edTech leader. In my opinion one the biggest challenge edTech leaders have is effectively communicating the need for change to District and School Administrators. Resources like Dr. McLeod help that conversation.

Dr. McLeod’s presentation (many key points are taking from the book Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton Christensen) details that ‘Personalized Learning’ is K-12 Education’s disruptive innovation (As compared to another example of a disruptive innovation – Cell Phones to Land Line Phones). What are we doing now that allows students of FCCPS to personalize their learning to meet learning goals? Do we give them the freedom to explore/extend assignments? What tools and resources do we make available to them at school and promote for home use? McLeod and Christensen suggests starting with underserved students groups to pilot digital technologies that foster personalized learning (disruptive innovation)…do you know any?

Check out the presentation (although the one @NECC on Monday involved more discussion) for more information.