http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/SupercoolSchool/~3/374603092/edublog
EXTRA BONUS SPEAKER: Peter Bihr - Web Strategist
Edublogging is blogging about education - no more, no less. So let's
have a look at how we can harness the power of blogs to improve our
learning & teaching experience, shall we? Let me give a summary up
front: The two most important things I see are your network and your
tools.
First and foremost: network!By networking I don't necessarily
mean networking in a strategic
let's-meet-up-and-start-something-big-together sense, although that
might be very helpful at times. No, it's even simpler! Just look at
what's out there and connect with them. There's plenty of blogs and
blogging educators out there. Plenty of organizations. Maybe even a few
of your students.
Where to start? Have a look at Technorati. There are institutional blogs like the UNESCO Chair of E-Learning. And don't dare missing out on Vicky Davis' website, Vicki can be found online using the alias CoolCatTeacher.
If there's one person to watch in this space, it's vicki. She's
everywhere, from YouTube to Twitter and back. (More on these tools
below.) And there's a very neat project called the Open Educational Resources Map, a Google Maps-based list of organizations and players who contribute to the ever-growing world of open educational resources:
Heather Ford (blog), director of the Icommons
organization and one of the most active persons fighting for Internet
rights along Europe and America, created some months ago this Open
Education Map that seems to be a very interesting project.
Everybody can contribute to this map, it's a global collaborative
effort.
Once you start looking around, you'll find plenty of interesting stuff
out there. Get to know the people who make it. If you get a chance, say
hi. Start simple: For example by writing a comment on their blog.
Have you networked your students yet? Says CoolCatTeacher Vicki Davis:
I find it ironic that pet networking would probably have a higher success rate than educational networking, and yet, Classroom 2.0 has almost 11,000 members, and I actually meet people on there.
Know your tools (and experiment)!
Once you know who's out there, it's time to look at your own stuff.
What tools do you work with? If they get the job done well, then all is
good. No need to read any further.
Still with us? Then maybe not all is quite perfect yet and you're ready
to take a few new tools for a spin? Again, don't be afraid of new
stuff. With a bit of commons sense you won't hurt anybody, and nobody
gets everything right the first time they try. Be prepared for a mishap
or two, and don't get discouraged. (Who said being a teacher means not
learning any more?) There are plenty of tools out there that may make
your life easier, and help you get your message across.
Again, let's have a look at the Cool Cat Teacher - on her website
you'll find 16 links to social media tools, sharing services or other
web outlets. Just to name a few: On del.icio.us she shares links, on Flickr photos. Videos go to YouTube, small info bits on Twitter.
Then there's a whole bunch of wikis she contributes to, a number of
blogs, an event calendar. There's even more.
The point is not to be on each and every service, or to drink all the
Kool Aid: It's to think about what makes sense, and then just doing it.
If you're facing problems, questions, obstacles, worry not: "When in trouble or in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout."
Be prepared to experiment a bit, and just ask your friends, colleagues,
or online acquaintances. Chances are they've run into similar problems
and are glad to help.
