Edina Digital Age Learning

This school year, our district has worked to transform the culture of professional learning to one of Professional Learning Communities and collaboration. One of the aspects of this transformation is the idea that teachers are the "lead learners" in the classroom. On Wednesday, September 4 a year-long professional learning opportunity kicks off for K-16 educators that provides an opportunity for people to become a connected learner. Open Online Experience   (OOE13.org)  is an chance for educators to learn about educational technology topics in a Connectivist Massive Open Online Course, or cMOOC.  cMOOCs are personalized, self-directed learning opportunities, where learners are invited to create and network in a social learning environment.  The structure of the experience is intentionally loose, as there are many entry points for people to interact with the content: On the OOE Website On Twitter using the #OOE13 hashtag in chats throughout the year On the G...

This past weekend, 500 educators descended on the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia for Educon 2.5 . For those who couldn't make the trip, most sessions were streamed, recorded and available for viewing. I was able to clear my schedule for a few hours both days to interact and learn. There was great conversation happening on Twitter as well. Here are my notes from those sessions. Edina Technology Integration: Educon 2.5: Build a MOOC Workshop ... 21 hours ago In his session at Educon 2.5, Jon Becker led a crowd sourcing activity to create a High School MOOC. Thomas Friedman discussed MOOC's in his New Your Times Op-Ed today, though Becker thought he didn't really get it. Edina Technology Integration: Educon Session 1: The Closer ... Jan 26, 2013 This session at Educon 2.5 titled: The Closer Citizen-Linking Close Reading to a Careful Analysis Of Media and Our Lives by Chris Lehman and Kate Roberts from The Teacher's College a...

Edina Public Schools Mission Statement states: The mission of Edina Public Schools is to educate all individuals to be responsible, lifelong learners who possess the skills, knowledge, creativity, self-worth, and ethical values necessary to thrive in a rapidly   changing, culturally diverse, global society. Today, French Teacher, Kim Caster helped her students meet the last part of that mission through a video chat Skype session with students in Montpelier, France .  Caster spent a year teaching in France a few years ago, as part of a Fullbright grant. Two-thirds of the students in Caster's class were students in the Edina French Immersion program. Caster's students spoke in French in their questions and responses to their pen pals, and in turn, the French Students spoke English.  Here are some of the questions that the French students were curious about: Which part of American History do you prefer? Why? Do you think the Amendment which allows peopl...

In his session at Educon 2.5 , Jon Becker led a crowd sourcing activity to create a High School MOOC. Thomas Friedman discussed MOOC's in his New Your Times Op-Ed today , though Becker thought he didn't really get it. @ pomdr please consider ignoring Friedman. As usual, he's misinformed and off base here. — Jonathan Becker (@jonbecker) January 27, 2013 Here's the video of the session. My Notes  from the session: Becker- Asking the question "What is a MOOC?" is the wrong question. There are many things that are "MOOCish," and all the letters are negotiable! Types of MOOC's xMOOC's -Corporate sponsored, Coursera etc Packaged with stuffed content. Proprietary.  cMOOC's -Connective, Community MOOC's. Creation is part of it.  I have seen others talk about 3 types of MOOC's . Examples DS106 - Started face to face, on Digital Storytelling. 1000's take the course for no credit online to be...

This week in ETMOOC we are talking about connecting as a way to network and learn from one another. One of the ways we connect is in our Google+ ETMOOC Community . Last night, while reviewing posts, I saw one from David Saunders , who created his introductory post using " PopCorn Maker ." PopCorn Maker is a tool in Mozilla's WebMaker Project .   You can even scroll through my tweets on the left hand side while the video is playing.  I thought it was a pretty cool way to create content on the Web. I'll need to test some of the capabilities on multiple devices, but at first glance, PopCorn Maker looks like a winner! Thanks, David!

Yesterday, I attended the synchronous orientation to the Educational Technology and Media Massive Open Online Course (ETMOOC). Our facilitator or " Network Sherpa ," Alec Couros ended the session with a couple of questions that I've heard before in regards to connected education that I tweeted out: 2 Questions from @ courosa "How are you making your learning visible? " How are you contributing to the learning of others?" #ETMOOC — Michael Walker (@micwalker) January 15, 2013 How am I making my learning visible? I think many of my colleagues would question why they needed to make their learning visible. They attend training, apply what resonates with them in their instruction, but the thought of sharing that learning out, is not something they are used to doing. It isn't necessarily part of their culture. There are exceptions , but many have not bought in to Dean's " Moral Obligation to Share. " For me, I jumped in to the conce...

Our monthly "Key Instructional Contact" meeting had a guest speaker this month. Nancy Sims , from the University of Minnesota Library System spoke on Copyright in the K-12 Classroom. Group Meeting Notes can be found here . Sims is a lawyer and Librarian. Intellectual Property and Copyright Overview Intellectual property is a legal concept that means different things to different people. Patent lawyers deal with Intellectual property, but may not know about copyright. It deals with things that people own that are not physical objects.  Patents -In the last year, people in small business have been in trouble for using a scanner on a network. Usually not an issue for schools. Trademarks -Usually not an issue in schools. Sims used a few logos as an example. Trademarks are about use in commerce, so most of the time, educational uses are ok. Implications of sponsorship could be an issue, but not an issue in student videos/teacher materials. Doug Johnson pointed out that t...

Over the past few months, I have been working with a small group of educators in Minnesota, exploring the possibility of creating a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) for teachers in Minnesota this summer. It started with Byron, Minnesota Tech Director, Jen Hegna tweeting out the idea, and I jumped on board, attending a both virtual and face to face planning meetings. @ jenlegatt @ rlcox74 @ micwalker If you get a chance - Please visit our MOOC google doc.I think we are going to try to connect at Ties — Jen Hegna (@jenhegna) November 29, 2012 We're still in the initial stages, but our hope is to combine the efforts of many people who are conducting online professional development for staff, crowd-source it a bit, combine the best ideas and create a learning experience that will provide teachers with good content and learning, as well as connect them to a broader community. Here is our planning document . I attempted a MOOC last fall, participating in a course through Sta...