How Do you Learn from Twitter Chats and WallWisher

Ok, I will be honest, having done two twitter chat sessions for etmooc, or should I say following them while they flew by. I was not a fan! Tweetdeck did help a lot. I was able to follow #etmchat as well as see those messages directed at me. A very nice tool.I will be honest, I'm still not sure how to make an actual connection on these chats, they go so fast, yet I see many who appear to have already made connections and consistently tweet to one another on subjects I'm sure began way before I came in. Maybe they are already connected.. maybe they are new to each other but I see them, connected to two or three and I wonder how they did it so quickly, I will keep trying but to be honest, I don't mind lurking in twitter chats, I still learn. I just feel bad I am not sharing through that medium..

The many comments I received on google plus regarding twitter chats helped a lot. So this week, I did as was suggested, I watched for a while and though I fell like a lurker, I found a post fly by composed by Natasha Allen where she shared her "wallwisher for web 2.0 applications" . Well before I knew if I clicked on the link and was introduced to wallwisher.com. Now this application may seem odd to some, ok, I can put blocks on a wall but for me, it is very powerful. I am a visual person. While my wall is not nearly complete and I love google reader, my reader is a list, if the "post title" does not entice me, I may not read it.

This I can see! It adds a bit of visual perspective to something that is linear. My feeds, wiki's and blogs all on one pretty page is a great idea. What I am most impressed with is how very easy is was to learn, click and add, click and add. It's easy to say the least and I can see great implementation of this in education at all levels. If you use wallwisher.com, please tell me how, currently I am thinking of adding a new wall with resources for my graduate students though that would be redundant from the moodle page they currently have? Or it is possible they like the pretty pictures like I do? Hm...

Created with Wallwisher

Conference call with Jeff Utecht

I have to admit, one of my major highlights in a long time for me was a conference call I had the pleasure of hosting with Mr. Jeff Utecht this week. Well known international technology educator and author the book “Reach”. Jeff was kind enough to Skype in my class for Emerging Technologies of which his book is required reading. To be honest, after reading it. I couldn’t think of a better book to introduce teachers to new concepts in education, technology and the power of Personal Networks or learning communities. To summarize, the conversation quickly turned to Google applications. We all love them and you can tell that Jeff is very passionate about them. When asked to choose just once resource for educators, his response was “definitely, Google applications, they are so powerful and allow for true collaboration as well as the ability to port your work quickly online. NO more corrupt files or flash drives, login from wherever you want”. Just starting with Google applications myself in education, I was sold immediately and will continue my journey with the installation of Google Chrome, more fun playing I’m told. I am currently implementing Google applications with my 8th grade students. When I asked Jeff, what he suggested he stated “naming conventions for email addresses”. Well I already blew that one  but I did keep track of all 93 emails through Google excel so I don’t feel so bad. I think it will be much easier for me to quickly indentify my students with a naming convention such as username and year of graduation. Thanks Jeff! The conversation turned to standards based grading due to a recent post of Jeff’s. He stated that “he believed in it only if it assessed skills” and I couldn’t agree more. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think my student care or know what the Power standards for my state are (much less do they care, they want to create, have fun and learn, and it’s technology). Did you know face book is not blocked in China? His students are truly connected and are very responsible about their digital identities. They take pride and ownership of their online work and blogs and I hope to instill this in my students. A sense of ‘I am REPRESENTNG me, my family and my school district”. I could go on and on but I believe this is the longest blog post I have written to date. Thank you Jeff, I learned as always and to my students and colleagues, C. Liss, L. Paul and M. Koehler for attending and adding to a wonderful conversation about collaboration, web 2.0 and life long learning.