15 Responses to “Teachers and administrators working together to advance Web 2.0 projects”

1. Sharon Eilts said on December 29th, 2007 at 12:07 pm

   I have had no luck with Web 2.0 for my classroom as the district blocks everything. In order to be able to video chat with another classroom somewhere outside of my school (I can use Bonjour with limited success), I have to get a personal IP address which is only approved many weeks in advance and only good for a limited amount of time. It is VERY frustrating. I teach special education and having the ability to collaborate with others is great for my students, but not possible at this time.

   Sharon

2. Alec Couros said on December 29th, 2007 at 10:35 pm

   Hey Kevin,
   I work in higher ed (teacher education program), so my journey is a bit easier in some ways … nothing is blocked. Often my frustration is that the tools we use in teacher ed. are not available when my students hit the field. It’s very disappointing for me and my students.

   I think sometimes research is persuasive. I’d mention several reports:
   a) The NSBA report saying that dangers of social network are being overrated – http://www.nsba.org/site/doc.asp?TRACKID=&VID=2&CID=90&DID=41336

   b) any of the newer PEW research reports which speak to the prevalence of teens online – http://www.pewinternet.org/ (Teens and Social Media, Digital Footprints, etc.)

   I’m also doing some writing on the subject right now, but can’t release anything yet. But I have some diagrams from my dissertation that might be useful. I tweeted them a while back. http://twitter.com/courosa/statuses/512093092

   Also, I’ve got tons of research on the effectiveness of web 2.0 in the classroom from my digital interns group (digitalinterns.ca) … we are finding that interns coming into the field with these ideas are helping to transform classrooms, and more so, the practice of their cooperating teachers.

   I hope this helps.

   All the best.

3. Scott Merrrick said on December 30th, 2007 at 10:08 am

   Hey, Kevin,

   A worthy endeavor. My best advice is for facilitators to spend time monitoring developments by RSSing blogs and news items related to new collaborative technologies. That, and somehow wangling some serious TIME (the bane of a teacher’s existence) for teachers to explore Web 2.0 on their own, with guidance. That was the thrust of a week-long workshop I pushed thru my admin approval this past summer at my school, and I have to say, it worked. Look at the resulting archives from the teacher-students at http://usnweb2oh.wikispaces.com/ and see what a little time can do for implementation. Bottom line is that awareness of all participants was enhanced tremendously, several went right out to implement 2.0 apps in their everyday work, including using a wiki for the classroom management of a 7th grade algebra course, a blog for management of a HS yearbook class (with a 40+ thousand dollar annual budget), and prolifice adoption of NetVibes for keeping up with the Read/Write Web. As always, best of luck to you! Holler if I can help in any way!

4. Kris Vassos said on December 30th, 2007 at 1:50 pm

   Hi Kevin,
   In our district we use some Web 2.0 technologies. I’ve used a blog with my 4th graders while studying science. It worked fairly well, although most of the students wanted to use it as a social meeting place. The classroom teacher and I had set certain rules to guide the students, such as proper grammar, punctuation, etc. and also the proper etiquette for responding. During the past couple of months my building principal, who was taking a course on Web 2.0 technologies, created a blog for our study group to discuss questions before we met each week.

   One the most successful projects I’ve had is the podcasting I’ve done with 4th graders. It’s hosted on our district website and no student names or images are posted.

   On the don’t use side of Web 2.0 technologies:
   Since our K-8 district does not set up email accounts for our students we don’t use any of the Google Apps. We do have distance learning capabilities, but they aren’t used very often. And finally, YouTube is blocked in district.

   I think that part of the reason that we limit some of the use of these sites is that we only have one person in district who manages all our IT. He’s often pushed and pulled in many directions and doesn’t have enough time to be able to adequately manage all aspects of IT. As a result, it is much easier to just block or not not enable some of the technologies. I think that if enough of the staff were using the technologies the district would find some way to make it work.

5. Mr. Jarrett said on December 30th, 2007 at 2:29 pm

   Hi Sharon,

   I hope that you can reply to this comment, and I apologize for the spam filter false-positive. The sad truth is that without spam countermeasures, any blog will get overrun with the most vile garbage faster than you can say “add comment.” (Also, it was good meeting you in Second Life last night!)

   Your situation seems fairly typical but at least you have a means by which to request a static IP and then you have the ability and interest to put it to good use. Tell me about the process you use to request the IP. Does IT care WHY you need it? Is there any sort of prioritization of your request vs. others, perhaps because it’s instructionally related?

   I’m just wondering how these requests get queued up and acted on, and if there is a better way for us to be communicating with the powers-that-be in the future…

   -kj-

6. Mr. Jarrett said on December 30th, 2007 at 2:42 pm

   Hi Alec,

   Thanks for commenting! I just favorited your Networked Teacher graphic, and plan to use it in an upcoming preso, if not CoSN, several others I’ve got in the pipeline. Credit will be yours, of course!

   I’ve quoted the NSBA study a lot, but as you know, it’s getting assailed as a bit of a sham:

   http://www.ncs-tech.org/?p=1012

   The question to me here is what communications need to exist between teachers and administrators to open these tools up in ways that don’t put the district at risk?

   For every district allowing blogs, there are so many more that have had bad experiences with inappropriate content either posted or linked (my favorite: the ‘next blog’ link on Blogger.com blogs). There are workarounds for that, but, it doesn’t take much for the typical administrator to adopt a Pokemon-style defense. “Gotta Block ‘em All!”

   That’s what I’d like to queue up with these people at my webinar…how to establish those lines of communication.

   -kj-

7. Mr. Jarrett said on December 30th, 2007 at 2:47 pm

   Thanks Scott!

   Those are terrific results! To what do you attribute the transformation? So many districts provide the workshops you describe (though YOU led the one in your district which I am sure made ALL the difference) … in most cases, people come, get the brain-dump, process a minimal portion of the information, implement an even smaller fraction, and the resulting pace of change is … painfully slow.

   Is there something specific about your environment that made your group more conducive to “seeing the Web 2.0 light” once you showed them the way?

   How open is your district in terms of Web 2.0 tools? What if anything is blocked? How strong is your AUP? Have you had any problems with inappropriate use and how were they handled?

   Thanks!

   -kj-

8. Mr. Jarrett said on December 30th, 2007 at 2:58 pm

   Hello Kris,

   You raise a very good point, we think of ourselves as being overworked, but often, many others in the district are too, particularly those who control the “gates.”

   It’s a vicious cycle. If more teachers were using the technologies, the district would be more open. That’s hard for teachers to do, since the technologies are restricted at school to begin with. So, the motivated folks, such as yourself, spend copious amounts of personal time learning and exploring so they can be informed when asked by an administrator as to why it’s of value. That’s where this breaks down. If things were more open in the first place, teachers would have more flexibility and time to explore during the school day. But then, with network defenses down, there would be a greater chance of inappropriate use by students. It’s the ultimate Catch-22…

   -kj-

9. Doug Johnson said on December 31st, 2007 at 9:03 am

   Hi Kevin,

   I beat this drum often, but I believe good tech policy decisions are made by an advisory committee with a wide range of stake holders, not the tech director. There will always need to be a balance of safety and freedom, and as far as I can tell, the only way to achieve such balance is by many voices being heard.

   More if interested at:
   http://www.ciconline.org/c/document_library/get_file?folderId=98&name=THSum07RulesforSocialWeb.pdf

   Good luck with your presentation! Sounds like a good one.

   Doug

10. Mr. Jarrett said on December 31st, 2007 at 9:15 am

    Hi Doug,

    Thanks for chiming in. As a veteran drum-beater, can you shed some light on how you’d recommend building said committee … and I don’t mean ‘write the memo and invite people.’ ;-) Most everything and nearly everyone resists change and that is, in my view at least, the main stumbling block here. How can we make the powers-that-be comfortable with establishing such an entity? Who gets involved? Where do they find the time? There have to be exemplars out there somewhere…

    I realize this is a huge topic, and if you want to blog about it in response and leave a trackback, that’s fine. This little bitty comment window isn’t very much fun to write in!

    Best, kj

11. Doug Johnson said on January 1st, 2008 at 9:42 am

    Hi Kevin,

    I will refer you and your readers to a column, Advisory Advice, that is now, gulp!, 10 years old, but still contains what I see as the successful elements of an advisory committee:

    http://www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/advisory-advice.html

    I recognize that such groups can be difficult to organize. In smaller schools where people might be “committee-ed out,” I would suggest asking an existing committee to take on some of the policy, planning and budgeting responsibilities that accompany tech implementation. A site council or building leadership team.

    If it is clear that these groups are ADVISORY, not rule making, there should be little for administrators to fear.

    All the best,

    Doug

12. Connie Sitterley said on January 9th, 2008 at 2:30 pm

    Kevin,
    Just got a pingback to the blog from your post. Just finished up my slides and look forward to the discussions that will come from the COSN presentation. I really appreciate the conversation that has already started here and look forward to following. I am on the way out right now, but may post later and participate in the sharing.
    Connie

13. Kevin Jarrett said on January 9th, 2008 at 4:42 pm

    Hi Connie,

    Thanks, I saw your draft slides and uploaded mine too. I think I went a little overboard … hoping for some honest feedback from everyone before we hit the airwaves next week.

    I noticed you run WordPress in your district. Awesome! I presume you’ve got a multiuser install there? I love WordPress, its power and flexibility as a publishing platform is, to me, unmatched.

    -kj-

14. Kim Cofino said on January 10th, 2008 at 2:50 am

    Hi Kevin,

    In all honesty, working in international schools, I haven’t had too much trouble starting the projects I’m interested in.

    One thing I have done at all schools is clarify to parents, teachers and administrators that absolutely no personal information will be shared online (last names, phone numbers, pictures, the usual) and that’s usually more than enough. We have the parents sign a clear permission slip and we’re off and rolling – while following a standard online safety policy.

    For teachers, I recently wrote a post with a list of tips on how to facilitate successful globally collaborative projects:

    http://mscofino.edublogs.org/2007/12/20/a-step-by-step-guide-to-global-collaborations/

    I hope that helps!

    Kim

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