2009 – A Year in Review on Classroom 2.0 LIVE!

Classroom 2.0 LIVE!

This Saturday, January 2, 2010, we will host a very special Classroom 2.0 LIVE! All of the special guests that have been on our show, as well as everyone who has participated in the live or recorded sessions, are invited for a special celebration. The show will mark the one year anniversary of when Classroom 2.0 LIVE! first began. Please join us for virtual food, fun and reminiscing as we celebrate all of our participants and special guests throughout 2009 on our first-year anniversary.

To commemorate the event, we have created a wiki page and are asking everyone to share one take away from any Classroom 2.0 LIVE! session at record it on our wiki page at http://wiki.classroom20.com/2009+-+A+Year+in+Review. We’d like to compile some stories, in advance of the show, from your experiences on Classroom 2.0 LIVE this year. You are invited to share a story of one take-away from any show, and briefly describe how you were able to use the idea. Was there a new idea, an “aha moment” or something new you learned that you would like share? We’ll share some of the stories during the live show and there will be opportunities to come to the mic and tell us your story. Please take a few moments to give us feedback and share how Classroom 2.0 LIVE! has touched your life.

Come prepared to share one image of a virtual refreshment or party decoration with the participants! More information and session details are at http://live.classroom20.com. If you’re new to the Classroom 2.0 LIVE! show you might want to spend a few minutes viewing the screencast on the homepage to learn how we use Elluminate and navigate the site to find the archives of previous shows and resources. Each show begins at 12pm Eastern and may be accessed in Elluminate directly using the following Classroom 2.0 LIVE! link at http://tinyurl.com/cr20live.

Peggy George, my fellow CR 20 LIVE! co host, created a very special Animoto to mark this milestone. The Animoto features the topics presented each week on Classroom 2.0 LIVE!.
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The 2009 Edublogs Awards Ceremony Is Thursday (and Be Sure to Vote Quickly!)

2009 Edublog Awards

The 2009 Edublogs Awards Ceremony Is Thursday (and Be Sure to Vote Quickly!)

The following is taken from Steve Hargadon’s blog –

We’ve just announced the time and date for the 2009 Edublog Awards Ceremony, which will be this Thursday December 17th US Time 4:00pm PST / 7:00pm EST, which is Friday December 18th 12:00am GMT / 5:30am Mumbai / 11:00am Australia EST.  Here’s a world time link so you can be sure you have the exact time in your part of the world:  TimeandDate.com.

Remember, voting closes before this — at 11:59pm US Eastern Standard Time on Wednesday December 16th.  That’s 8:59pm US PST.  (Other international times here.)  Don’t delay!  Vote now!

The Awards Ceremony will be held in Elluminate this year (my favorite real-time web meeting platform, and–of course–my employer).  Sue Waters from Edublogs and I will be co-hosting the show.  The link to enter the show is http://tinyurl.com/edublogawards.

If you are new to Elluminate — please make sure that your computer is configured for Elluminate before the event by visiting Elluminate Support.  We’ll open up the Elluminate room 30 minutes before we start, and we encourage you to come in a few minutes early to set your microphone up and make sure you’re connected.  Those who would prefer, or have any difficulty connecting, can use the telephone bridge by dialing 913-312-1029 (US toll-free at 877-880-7307) and then using the PIN 495124. 

If you are a potential award winner we just want to make sure you know that should you win we’ll give you a minute or two to say a few words. We expect the show will last around 90 minutes, but we make no guarantees!  Following the show we’ll open the mics and webcams and have a “virtual” post-show / year-end party.  We hope you’ll join us for what you can.

I want to express my personal appreciation to all who are involved in education and contribute through blogging, social networking, social media, and other educational technologies.  The Edublog Awards are admittedly an imperfect methodology for recognizing all of those contributions, but hopefully they are a way of celebrating some of the contributions that appreciates all that we accomplish together.  If you feel someone was overlooked or under-recognized, we’ll have a chance for you to shout out “well done” to them during the show!  And from me, Thank You!

I also wanted to explain why I have not encouraged voting for my Classroom 2.0 social network in the social networking category.  Since it has won the Edublog Award for the past two years and is several times the size of the next largest network nominated, I don’t think it needs additional recognition.  As well, my being co-host this year has inclined me to want the spotlight on some of the other wonderful networks that have grown in this space.  If we had removed Classroom 2.0 from the nominations it would have created confusion, but I’ve withdrawn it from consideration for an award.  A special thanks to all of you who use Classroom 2.0 to learn and explore the potential of social networking in education!

See you online!

Inside the Global Collaborative Debate: Eracism Debate Finals

Eracism Project: A Flat Classroom (tm) Project

The 2009 global debate project for middle schoolers, the Eracism Project (a Flat Classroom^TM Project www.eracismproject.org) will hold the finals of Eracism on the private Eracism grid on ReactionGrid on Thursday, December 17 at 9:15 am EST – 10:15 EST.  Although the students and judges for this project will be in-world, the presentation will be streamed live with a backchannel as part of the K12 Online Conference 2009 to CCiTV Live at http://ccitv.cciu.org/.

Student finalists will be debating “Differences Make us Stronger” in the impromptu style debate moderated by Bernajean Porter (http://www.digitales.us) with the final vote on the winner taken from the judges and student participants in the project who will be in the virtual world.  This final debate is the culmination of an 8 week debate project that began with sixteen teams from 12 classrooms in 7 countries and is now down to two debate teams from Shorecrest Preparatory School in Florida and Westwood Schools in Georgia.

The organizers of the project recently shared a presentation as part of the K12Online Conference about how the project was founded, the methodologies and tools used to make the debates “feel” as synchronous as possible, even when in the asynchronous environment of VoiceThread.

Sponsors of this project include: Elluminate, VoiceThread, ReactionGrid, and Wikispaces.

Date: Thursday December 17, 9:15 am EST – 10:15 EST.

Flat Classroom Project Student Summits: Invitation to Join

Flat Classroom™ Project

As part of the Flat Classroom™ Project 2009-3 we are holding online Student Summits in our Elluminate virtual classroom and invite participants in the K12 Online Conference to join us. These sessions will be 45-60 minutes long and participants will have the opportunity to interact with individual student presentations as they discuss their involvement and achievements in the recent project. Participants will also be able to see how a virtual meeting that includes students and educators around the world can be successfully run as a synchronous and virtual event.  The focus is on the students, digital citizenship and online learning skills as well as cultural interaction and sharing of knowledge about the topics in the Flat Classroom™ Project.

Join our Flat Classroom™ Projects Group on this Ning: http://k12online.ning.com/group/flatclassroomprojects

Elluminate

Here is the link to our Flat Classroom™ Public Presentation room: https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?sid=2007066&password=M.BBF3F987EB53E7EAB1128C0DA2E961

Come and join us at any or all of the following Flat Classroom Student Summit times:

(Tuesday at 11:30 pm EST)  Wednesday December 16: Beijing (BISS) International School Summit #2 12:30pm China, 4:30am GMT  Timeanddate conversion

Wednesday December 16: Westwood Schools #2 1:30pm EST, 18:30 GMT Timeanddate conversion

San Antonio Day of Discovery

This past Saturday, December 5th, I had the great fortune to be able to participate in the Discovery Educator Network (DEN) San Antonio Day of Discovery. There was so much fun, collaboration and sharing throughout the day. Steve Dembo, Mike Bryant and Justin Karkow were fanstastic presenters! Malinda McCormack, PBS/KLRN and Jennifer Faulkner, Alamo Heights ISD/TCEA Reg 20, put on a fantastic day of learning in conjunction with the DEN guys.

It was so refreshing to work with teachers that were new to using streaming and/or technology tools in their classrooms. So many technology tools were shared in sessions with the DEN guys and put into practice in the playground area. I assisted Elaine Plybon and Linda Rush, DEN Leadship Council for Texas, for part of the last playground session and struggled using Macbooks instead of Windows computers. I couldn’t remember half of the things that I needed to to use the Macbooks effectively and certainly wasn’t much help to Elaine and Linda!

Miguel, Malinda and Steve

After the session I was invited to join Malinda, the DEN guys and Miguel Guhlin for dinner that evening at a local restaurant. My husband made us run late as he was watching a U of A game but that’s another story! The fun was in full swing as you can see from the pictures here. Even though everyone was ‘off the clock’, tech talk still occurred and we reminisced about the good ‘ole days when I first started using technology and when I worked under Miguel Guhlin as a campus instructional technologist (CIT) in the San Antonio ISD (SAISD). There was so much experience and knowledge about integrating technology at one table it was overwhelming!

I was only able to work with Miguel for a year before my position as a CIT was cut but he served as a great mentor, encourager and support in my personal learning network. I started following him on Twitter and maintaining my own blog as a result of his prodding and encouragement. As a result of following him on Twitter and subscribing to his blog,

When I first saw Miguel that morning, I excitedly greeted him and we began to talk about the many things that I am doing online. He jokingly says that he never heard, read or knew that he was my mentor and I credit my online success as a result of me following his suggestions to step out of my comfort area and take a risk by

Miguel’s prodding started the path of becoming a huge advocate for using Twitter/Plurk to learn about technology education, present for state and national conference about instructional technology, applying to become a STAR Educator with the DEN, to participating in webcasts and the webcast academy at EdTechTalk to now co-hosting the Classroom 2.0 LIVE! weekly broadcast in Elluminate/LearnCentral, moderating Ellumiante sessions and serving as the Flat Classroom™  Project Administrator with Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay.

This long, wandering, ever growing path all started with Miguel modeling the right way to do things personally and professionally with technology. I followed his lead and been afforded some awesome opportunities that I am truly grateful for and work with some awesome colleagues. Steve Hargadon is immensely supportive of me and helps me grow all the time interviewing people and conducting Elluminate sessions. Julie and Vicki are phenomenal people to work with and I have learned so much from my personal learning network that would not have been possible had I not started following my passion of doing things onlineand creating a digital footprint.

To top off all the fun, it was Steve’s birthday and he celebrated it San Antonio style at dinner! You can read more about the Day of Discovery from Miguel’s blog at http://www.mguhlin.org/2009/12/san-antonio-day-of-discovery-podcasts.html. (The picture is a bit blurry as I just got my Blackberry a week or so before and was still new at using the features of the phone.)

My Edublog Award Nominations

2009 Edublog Awards

The deadline is fast approaching and I procrastinated long enough! My nominations are below:

Best teacher blog: CoolCat  Teacher http://coolcatteacher.blogspot.com/

Most influential blog post: TJ on a Journey – “Every Kid Deserves a Ms. Kaune” http://tjonajourney.blogspot.com/2009/08/every-kid-deserves-ms-kaune.html

Best educational use of a virtual world – DEN SL Blog  http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/secondlife/

Best resource sharing blog – Miguel Guhlin – “Around the Corner” http://www.mguhlin.org/

Best educational tech support blog – Teach 42  http://www.teach42.com/

At a later time I will expand upon why I nominated each blog but for now I will conclude this post as I want to meet the nomination deadline!

December 12th – Fireside Chat with Joyce Valenza and Konrad Glogowski

GET READY FOR AN EXCITING
LEARNING EXPERIENCE!

K12 Online 2009 is a FREE conference open to ANYONE interested in integrating emerging technologies into classroom practice. A primary goal of the conference is to help educators make sense of and meet the needs of a continually changing learning landscape.  Live events and twice-monthly webcasts will continue into 2010 via EdTechTalk , and Professional Development Credit is available.

To participate, visit http://k12onlineconference.org/, mark the following dates on your calendar, and encourage your colleagues to join us in “Bridging the Divide”!

Getting Started and Leading the Change
Keynote Fireside Chat

December 12th at 1:30pm EST/6:30pm GMT

Week One: December 7-11 – Getting Started and Leading the Change

Strand A: Getting Started (13 Presentations)
Keynote: Joyce Valenza, United States

The presentations in this strand will focus on specific, free tools for newcomers. Whether you have one classroom computer or a laptop for every student, digital technologies can provide new opportunities to connect with other learners, create new and exciting knowledge products, and engage students in an expanded learning process beyond the traditional “boundaries of the bell.” Teachers first introduced to Web 2.0 tools are often unaware of the new possibilities for teaching and learning afforded by the Read/Write Web. Presentations in this strand will amplify and model what is possible in terms of pedagogy, student creation of content, and collaboration. Practical classroom implementation ideas will be emphasized. Presentations will focus more on the ways new tools can be used to engage students in learning, rather than focusing exclusively on how specific tools are used. If you’ve ever felt like everyone else knows more than you about teaching with technology and you need help getting started, this is the strand for you.

Strand B: Leading the Change (14 Presentations)
Keynote: Konrad Glogowski, Canada

This strand seeks to amplify ways educators in a variety of contexts are serving as constructive catalysts for broad-based pedagogic change using Web 2.0 technologies as well as student-centered, project-based approaches to learning. Presentations in this strand will both showcase successful strategies as well as amplify critical issues which must be addressed for innovative learning methods to be adopted by teachers, librarians, and administrators on a more widespread basis. These issues may include (but are not limited to) issues of copyright, fair use and intellectual property, internet content filtering, student privacy and safety issues, administrator expectations for teacher utilization of Web 2.0 tools, pilot initiatives utilizing key Web 2.0 technologies in different content areas, and innovative ways students and teachers are providing just-in-time support as well as formal learning opportunities for each other focusing on Web 2.0 tools.

Live Event – Fireside Chat with Joyce and Konrad
December 12th, 6:30pm GMT/1:30pm EST

Edublogs Awards Deadline Fast Approaching – December 8th

2009 Edublog Awards

I just received this reminder email from Steve Hargadon through Classroom 2.0 and thought I would pass it along in case some were not part of the Classroom 2.0 Ning community

Just a quick reminder that the nominations for the 2009 Edublog Awards close tomorrow, Tuesday, December 8th, by midnight U.S. Eastern Time.

Now in their 6th year, the Edublog Awards celebrate the achievements of edubloggers, twitterers, podcasters, video makers, online communities, wiki hosts and other web based users of educational technology. This year Classroom 2.0 is co-hosting the awards, and Elluminate is supporting the event.

We encourage you to nominate someone–or several people!  In order to nominate a person/blog/site for the 2009 Edublog Awards you link to them. Full details are on the Edublog Awards site.

Nominations: Close Tuesday 8 December!

Voting: Ends Wednesday 16 December!

Award Ceremony: Friday 18 December!

The categories are:

• Best individual blog
• Best individual tweeter
• Best group blog
• Best new blog
• Best class blog
• Best student blog
• Best resource sharing blog
• Most influential blog post
• Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion
• Best teacher blog
• Best librarian / library blog
• Best educational tech support blog
• Best elearning / corporate education blog
• Best educational use of audio
• Best educational use of video / visual
• Best educational wiki
• Best educational use of a social networking service
• Best educational use of a virtual world
• Lifetime achievement

Have fun!

Steve

Steve Hargadon

Founder, Classroom 2.0

steve@hargadon.com

Visit Classroom 2.0 at: http://www.classroom20.com/?xg_source=msg_mes_network