I sent out this email to everybody in my district on Friday:
This invitation is for ALL teachers (all grades, all content areas). Are you interested in participating in a web 2.0 usergroup? It's OK if you do not know what that means... Web 2.0 includes communication tools that emphasize publishing and sharing of ideas. There are many ways that web 2.0 can make a big difference in student learning! Examples include blogs, wikis, video creation, podcasting, and social bookmarking. Reply to this email if you are interested. Together, the group will determine where, when, and how often we will meet. We will first explore web 2.0 applications, then will identify one to focus on and begin experimenting. The first goal for the usergroup is to learn to use these tools for our own professional development. Of course, you can earn staff development hours. Teachers of all grade levels are encouraged to participate.
By the end of the day, 70 teachers, administrators, and other staff had replied to express their interest! There are over 80 responses now. Wow! I am thrilled with this excellent response. Now I need to figure out how to best get it off the ground, schedule convenient meetings, and plan a strategy to try to meet everyone's needs...
Wow! 80 people that is great! I started with 27 in blogging, and in a month will start a wiki workshop so I have no numbers yet. When we did this workshop we broke it down by levels (elementary, middle and high school) this allowed us to focus on appropriate examples. We had one group that was two large if we did it again I would limit each group to no more than 10. During our first session (2hours) we talked about blogs, looked at examples and set up blogs at edublogs. We could have used some more time. We had a follow up meeting about 45 mins to talk a little of the experience and other blogging skills (commenting, tagging and the like). The follow up, yet to happen, will talk about blogging in the classroom and other educational settings. Some of the participants may keep blogging others will at least have a better idea of web 2.0.
ReplyDeleteMany participants needed one-on-one support, they had no trouble reading blogs but needed a little more support, encouragement to make their first couple of posts. Some never got out of the starting gates. When it is all done I will invite them to comment on my blog about what worked and didn't work for them.
I look forward to following your progress.
Pam - I made the above comment, (not sure why name and URl didn't show) and thought of one more thing. I think I would have devoted more time to how to find blogs and the various blog search engines. I came in with some examples but I wish I had a few more, buy subject area and grade level. As I prepare for the Wiki workshop, I am trying to find examples and group them by subject and grade level.
ReplyDeleteBeth, thanks so much for the tips! It's so nice to know of someone out there who is doing something similar. Let's share resources!
ReplyDeleteIt seems this type of thing/excitement is happening all over. It's interesting to see the various approaches to facilitating change. I don't think there is a cookie-cutter formula but please continue to blog the progress so we as leaders can learn from each other.
ReplyDeleteExcellent response, Pam! I hope you share your plans as they develop.
ReplyDeleteThere once was a lady
ReplyDeleteWho no one thought shady
A truth commonly known.
With much use of techbites
This lady grows dentrites
At a rate not often shown.
Things delicious, Wicikes and Blogs
Podcasts and Tech Friends and logs
This lady keeps us richly Tech grown.