[Oh how i wish this was NEA!]

From: www.cio.com
– C.G. Lynch, CIO

Teach for America (TFA), the nonprofit group that helps place college graduates into teaching jobs with low-income communities, will adopt social networking for its 5,000 members this spring to share information with one another about best practices, job opportunities and other career interests.

THE Journal (4/16, Nagel) reported that teachers are increasingly using "web-based collaboration tools" in order "to supplement instruction, engage learners, and encourage their students to become producers of information, as well as consumers of it."

The article explores some of the more popular free tools being used, dividing them into three categories. Regarding the first type, digital media sharing tools, THE Journal noted TeacherTube and SchoolTube, as they allow the posting of educational content but are regulated, thereby avoiding student access to inappropriate content contained in sites such as YouTube. Such sites also help teachers avoid "potential copyright issues." The second type of collaborative tool is the online learning community, sites that "focus not so much on digital media as on education tools in general -- including assessments, learning/course management, textual materials, and other resources."

The article lists a number of communities providing different types of content. The third tool is Wikispaces, which "offers free services for teachers who want to host classroom wikis, including the ability to create private wikis viewable and editable only by members of the teacher's group."

THE Journal
About the author: David Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's online education technology publications, including THE Journal and Campus Technology. He can be reached at dnagel@1105media.com.
[online@http://www.thejournal.com/the/printarticle/?id=22456]

While most districts are still tackling Web-based collaboration tools from pedagogical and security perspectives, a large number of teachers are already out there using these tools to supplement instruction, engage learners, and encourage their students to become producers of information, as well as consumers of it. In other words, they're experimenting. And here are some of the free tools they're using to do it.

Digital Culture

[Listen Online]

A recent conference for educators, museum staff, and history buffs titled “Stepping Into History,” organized by an Illinois library group, kicks off with a "picnic."

—Second Life screen capture

Education Week
By Andrew Trotter

For educators who think real life does not offer enough opportunities to practice their profession, there’s Second Life, an Internet-based virtual environment that counts thousands of educators among its enthusiasts.

Second Life bears a passing resemblance to an online game, with users represented by digitally drawn characters, called avatars, that can interact and engage in a vast array of activities. But a growing number of K-12 educators and groups have come to see the 3-D virtual environment as having educational potential that is very real.

“Think of Second Life as a world, an extension of the physical Earth, and a place where you will find a thriving educational community,” said Peggy Sheehy, a teacher in New York state who has become a Second Life evangelist to the K-12 community.

BELLEVUE - The Bellevue School District teacher's strike just got more interesting as teachers started posting their side of the story on a popular video-hosting Web site. And parents by the hundreds are taking notice of their online message as the strike enters its second week.

The Bellevue teachers union has posted at least three videos on youtube.com, each with its own theme. (Scroll down to the bottom of the story to see two of the videos.)

COURTSIDE
KAPPAN - the publication of Phi Delta Kappa
AUTHOR – Perry A. Zirkel, University Professor of Education and Law, Leigh University

On January 2, 2003, the Connecticut Technical High School system hired Jeffrey Spanierman as an English teacher for its program in Ansonia, Connecticut.

During his second and third years in the position, he was responsive to students who asked him to look at their MySpace pages. The MySpace web site allows users to create their own profile page, including photographs. One of the features is that the owner of a profile can post blogs and allow other MySpace users to post comments.

By the summer of 2005, Spanierman had opened his own MySpace account, creating several different profiles. One was called “Mr. Spiderman.” He used the account to communicate with students about homework and also to conduct nonschool-related discussions.

Baltimore County Public School system rolls out PBwiki to 103,643 students and 8,850 classroom teachers.

They've created a collaborative environment that allows teachers and students to see multiple models of outstanding writing. Prior to using the wiki, teachers who wanted to highlight a well-written student response, needed to first copy it and then, make a transparency. Frequently, the text was illegible in places and because of the amount of work involved and time constraints only one or two student models were displayed.

The county knows from research that the more student models writers see, the more rich and well-written responses we receive. PBwiki provides the means for students to view multiple models 24/7 and as a result, to independently assess and improve their written responses. In addition, the collaborative environment facilitates the development of peer review and editing skills.

[more...]

UNION CITY, CA (KGO) -- These are stressful times for educators from budget cuts to teacher layoffs and schools closing. So the California Teachers Association has come up with a way to keep teachers informed about these developments every minute of the day, by using a new social networking website.

[online@The Providence Journal]

ORONO, Maine (AP) -- Twitter, the online social networking service that's become popular with celebrities and politicians, is linking second-grade classes in two Maine towns.

Mrs. White's class in Orono has been Twittering for about a month with Mr. Thompson's class in Greene, exchanging messages that can't exceed 140 characters.

Debbie White said she decided to bring the micro-blogging site to her classroom to help her pupils learn writing skills by composing messages, known as Tweets.

Most of the students seem to be enjoying the exercise. Some say it's like having pen pals online.

Broward County Public Schools has initiated a Twitter account to keep students, parents and the public updated with the latest news and information about the nation’s sixth-largest public school system. The District’s free Twitter account provides a variety of information, including the latest press releases, notifications, changes in School Board schedules, emergency updates and more.

The University of Maine has approved new guidelines for tenuring and promoting academics. The new guidelines allow crediting an academic for contributing to social media.

This the right thing to do not only because it is a more realistic assessment of an academic’s worth. It’s also the right thing to do because it helps to build the value of the network. If knowledge and expertise are becoming properties of the network, it is the social responsibility of our institutions to encourage the enhancement of that network.

[Review "New Criteria for New Media"]

By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY

Does Facebook lead to lower grades? Or do college students with lower grades use Facebook more than their higher-achieving peers?

A study of 219 students at Ohio State University being presented at a conference this week doesn't answer those questions definitively. But it suggests a link between the social networking site and academic performance.

Students who said they used Facebook reported grade-point averages between 3.0 and 3.5; those who don't use it said they average 3.5 to 4.0. Also, Facebook users said they studied one to five hours a week, vs. non-users' 11 hours or more.

Ohio State doctoral student Aryn Karpinski, who conducted the research with graduate student Adam Duberstein, says the study is too narrow to conclude that Facebook and academics don't mix.

"It cannot be stated (that) Facebook use causes a student to study less" or get lower grades, she says. "I'm just saying that they're related somehow, and we need to look into it further." Of the 68% of students who said they used Facebook, 65% accessed the site daily or multiple times daily.

Karpinski says 79% of Facebook users believe it has no impact on their academics; some say it helps them form study groups.

She says faculty ought to consider harnessing it as a learning tool. Yet a preliminary peek at a second survey suggests "a lot of faculty … didn't even know what Facebook is," she says.

by Kimberly Melton, The Oregonian
[online @ Oregon Education]

Local school districts are following the lead of their students and signing up for Facebook and Twitter. This fall, Portland Public Schools, Beaverton, Forest Grove and Washington's Evergreen are among the districts joining this national trend.

[Online @ ArgusLeader.com]

On Matt Christensen's Facebook page, talk of Lynx football and a message from a longtime friend mix with a student's question about an English assignment.

The 30-year-old Brandon Valley High School teacher said the social networking site helps him communicate with students about schoolwork and gives them a glimpse of who he is as a person. If students like their teacher, he said, they're more likely to respect him or her and work harder in class.

"It's got to be done for academic benefit. I see mine as academically beneficial," Christensen said.

[online @ NCC]

A campaign called Next Generation Learning was launched this year by Becta to promote the effective use of technology in schools, colleges and other learning environments. Tony Richardson explains how Web 2.0 has the potential to revolutionise technology in learning.