Edina Digital Age Learning

Last week, Valley View Middle School Government Teacher, Erik Anderson found out that he had been selected to "live tweet" President Obama's State of the Union Address, from the White House. For the last 5 years, Erik has used Twitter to connect his students with other educators, and to connect with fellow teachers around the world. Over the weekend, he was interviewed on local radio and television stations, and on Tuesday morning, boarded a plane to fly to Washington for the event. I loved in the audio of his WCCO Radio interview that he talked about his use of social media in the classroom, and how his use of Twitter has made him a "connected educator," and the benefit it has been to his students. During the State of the Union, students watched the speech and "live tweeted," their thoughts, using the #SOTU and #vvmsgov hashtags. It was fun to see teachers participate as well, as it gave students the opportunity for an authentic experience,...

Last September, Will Richardson challenged our faculty to " Redefine Awesome " in what learning looked like in our district. The last few weeks, have seen some great connected learning opportunities happening at Valley View Middle School that get at what Will was talking about.  Project Lead the Way Tim Berendt, a teacher in our Project Lead the Way program, began using Twitter this year as a way for his students to share the work they are doing with the outside world, and also as a tool for formative assessment.  Students tweet out what they hope to accomplish at the beginning of the class period, and then tweet what they completed at the end. In many cases, students have received feedback and encouragement from people outside the district, such as this exchange from Autodesk, the company that makes the software the students use!  Berndt did a great job at the start reminding students to follow our Web 2.0 Code of Ethics , and how they could use hashtags to label ...

Mike Slowinski , from West De Pere High School in Wisconsin shared how he is integrating social media collaboration in his session on " Creating Student-Centered Mobile Learning Networks Using Facebook, Twitter, and Cell Phones." He used the analogy of Frutios vs. Fruitloops to demonstrate that students prefer using certain tools, and while "walled garden" type products may look and taste like more popular sites, when push comes to shove, students want to use the tools they're comfortable with. He started in their district with Facebook Dual Identitiy (Social-Social vs. Professional-Social) Professional Account (WDP-FirstnameLastname) Symbolic Picture Limited to School Activities  Students were asking questions outside of class all the time. Facebook message/Inbox was used a lot. Students didn't have to put out perceived "dumb questions" in class, and allowed organic questions. Also posted on Wall. Twitter Integration Some students m...

I stopped by to listen in on Chris Craft ( @crafty184 ), Jonathan Becker( @jonbecker ) and Jeremy Brueck ( @brueckj23 ) discuss how to use Twitter more efficiently. It was interesting to see these three educators from different parts of the country collaborate and share their perspectives on how Twitter can be used effectively. I've been trying to grow things grass roots in Edina the last couple of years, as it has greatly benefited me professionally, and I was hoping to gain some insights from this ISTE Bring Your Own Laptop session. They actually began their session last week, by inviting those registered a Google Form Survey created by Brueck to gather background information on the participants skill level and to attend a Moodle course on Twitter providing introductory lessons and a quiz. Brueck also has this Wiki site with great resources for every level of Twitter user. They created three hashtags which formed a backchannel for the session : #isteask for people to ask que...

For those of you who follow this blog, you know that I have been using Twitter to share information and learning and develop my Personal Learning Network . Today, I received an e-mail from LiveStream (formerly Mogulus) that they had developed an interface allowing you to send out a link to your stream and interact with viewers via Twitter called Twitcam . You can see a short test I did over lunch. (It was salami!) Might be useful for professional development or a quick conference. I think I'd use the full blown Livestream for workshop streaming or guest speakers.

Yesterday, Sara Swenson , Edina High School Librarian (She prefers that term!) shared the following video with me via e-mail that she found on an NCTE Web s ite . I thought that the video crystallized for me the potential for educational technology integration, 21st Century learning and learning beyond the classroom walls. It is something we are working on with our Community of Practice . That isn't to say that there won't be road blocks to navigate, or crevasses to traverse! We know they exist now! I was intrigued to see the teacher's role defined in such creative ways!! When people ask you what you do for a living, do you respond as "teacher", "educator", "instructor", facilitator", or are you a "Connected Learning Incubator" or are you still "Keeper of All Knowledge Which Is Good?" Hmmm ... Then this morning, I checked my Twitter feed and Will Richardson had posted about a conference on the Future of Education ...

Saw a g reat blog post today on Twitter. I admit that I could have written the first paragraph myself! I have a Twitter account, and I've "tweeted" a few times regarding what I'm doing, but since I don't follow anyone, and no one is following me, it hasn't become a common habit. This post with it's resources may get me to do more and see the benefits and how it might work in your classrooms. Do any of you use Twitter?