Sneaky marketplace

Seems like there is a sneaky bit of marketing going on with social media sites and educational technology companies. If I’m not mistaken, more and more colleagues are being asked to do ‘positive promotion’ (yes, I’m being diplomatic with my chosen language here) when using social media in exchange for badges of notification, beta-testing of software or free CPD. This isn’t new in itself; the most prominent example of this is the Apple ATI event where training takes place and  you and your school are marketed at – not so bad as you wouldn’t attend the event if your school wasn’t thinking of investing in equipment. A spin off of this is the Apple Distinguished Educator badge (ADE) that started in the States as a notifier for internal school CPD knowledge and peer sharing.

Being an ADE involves 4 primary roles – advocate, advisor, author and ambassador. Each is connected to our relationship with Apple and the devices we use in our teaching and learning.
Advocate – passionate users of Apple technologies and able to present to others how to use these tools in education
Advisor – feedback to Apple how these technologies influence education
Author – publish examples of work using Apple technologies for others to learn from and use
Ambassador – build global communities to “expand the walls of the classroom”

Usually mac fans (I am one) are pretty evangelical about the kit anyway so its not such a stretch to be an Advocate. When does this come down to sales and renewed contracts though? In my experience of running ATI events there is an element of bums on seats and if there isn’t the interest then your badge can be transferred to a rival organisation… you shouldn’t need the badge to be able to run a free CPD event. But then. you don’t get access to gratis kit and or beta software either.

Other companies are following suite in this way (Microsoft Accreditation obviously, AutoDesk, Google Teacher Academy amongst others). What is developing now is the way the advocation is being pursued using social media sites in very subtle ways (owing much to Internet marketing techniques) and not obviously positive promotion either. Some examples: the hashtag for ukedchat is attached to social media discussions on Twitter for UK Education. On one occasion the discussion was moderated by a company offering educational awards and the subject was: Educational Awards! So blatant a promotion (even if not intended) that there was cyber-outrage…

Where does this stop? Google Teacher Academy ‘graduates’ discussing how useful Picasa is at opportune moments? It is neither the most user friendly or cheapest online photo storage service so should be discussed in the context of other services surely… maybe I’m reading too much into this trend of product placement but if it isn’t with us now it certainly will be soon…

Extract from sales banter:

Do you know where to find your target market?

Do you know what your message is?

Many people jump into social media marketing without any kind of action plan. They jump on the bandwagon and start Tweeting their message to anyone who will listen, hoping that it will land on captive ears. And, they turn off many potential friends and ambassadors in the process.

Now consider this in terms of your social media discussions of products and services – as tweeting teachers you are a potential market to be (subtly) exploited! Nuff’ said.

Effective use of social internet

The social internet encompasses a whole range of software that allows the user to socially interact and share media or data. This computer-based communication has become very popular with social sites like My Space and Facebook, media sites like Flickr and YouTube, and commercial sites like Amazon.co.uk and eBay.co.uk. Many of these applications share characteristics like ‘open’ Application Programming Interfaces (to share functions requested by operating systems via the Internet), a service oriented design, and the ability to upload data and media. The terms Web 2.0 and (for large-business applications) Enterprise 2.0 are also used to describe this style of software.  Social software also may form aspects of products and services that facilitate a variety of new forms of social human contact.

In the context of my role at the CLC, I have used and developed systems that utilize aspects of social software technology. Of the 6 powerful ideas (Anderson, 2007) and 18 types of social software identified, I will select 6 that I have used frequently and comment on their effectiveness as educational tools.

1. Social Bookmarking

Some websites allow users to create accounts and save their favourite bookmarks for web addresses or URLs. I use Delicious (http://delicious.com/damolward) as a bookmarking tool that enables me to share web addresses with colleagues and students. My initial use was due to the fact that a list I published on my web site to help ICT students frequently had outdated or broken links and was becoming unmanageable. Delicious allows the user to view by Meta tags and clouds of most popular visitors; thereby providing searchability with an aspect of qualitative popularity. Outdated links are automatically deleted. Other benefits include the ability to search others’ tags and not be restricted by bookmarks saved only locally on a laptop or PC. Social catalogues like refbase.net allow academic bookmarking based on tagged documents within a MySQL database. Social libraries use a similar system for vinyl records and DVDs (search discogs.com or imdb.com). Using this particular tool has enabled simultaneous distribution of web addresses with search and quality measures.

2. Wikis

Wikis are web pages that can be edited by its’ visitors. I have experimented with Wikipedia as a way of engaging low ability students and one particular student with autistic tendencies. Local history was the focus of the exercise at first as many of the students found little or no data on their home villages or schools. They were delighted to find multiple additions, corrections and entries in the months that followed. My autistic student had a particular interest in 1970s heavy metal bands and found inaccurate data on Wikipedia – he took special interest in updating and ‘correcting’ these pages while citing his references as proof. I have used a wikispaces page to link together a series of tasks and provide a space for collaborative reporting back on exercises. More recently, I used a pbwiki site to share the Scratch animation information from one of the university day schools; this became the basis for a teaching tool for an animation camp (320 students) and an area to upload completed projects. Wikis are very quick to set up and easy to use – students unfortunately rely on some of the data, which is not always accurate but are encouraged by the interactivity.

3. Media Sharing

Social sites that specialize in the sharing of personal media products are especially useful for archiving, sharing and collecting informal evaluative judgments. Sites such as Flickr.com and Picasa are especially useful for our photography and media students as a way of cataloguing their work with searchable Meta tags. The ability to produce sets creates digital portfolios and space for commentary. As a way of tutoring the students in the assembly of a digital portfolio, Flickr is particularly useful due to the simplicity of the interface. The ability to gain feedback and short comments from other people is also a benefit. YouTube has a similar potential for video material but is blocked by our local authority control due to the mass of inappropriate material. As we produce a lot of digital video, we are currently fact finding alternative software (TeacherTube for staff videos and Trilby for schools). A software engineer offered to create a bespoke system based on Google technology (positioning media within time and space on a virtual timeline/map) but the set up costs were way beyond our funding.

4. Virtual worlds

We were recently given a 3D projection system by the local authority, as were the 16 secondary schools in the region. Our role was to work out how they could be used for successful teaching and learning and provide Inset to schools. The approach we took was to blend the use of pre-installed 3D environments (an underwater scene, a Tudor village, Whitby Whaling scene for example) with the use of 3D Virtual worlds such as Google Earth (especially 3D models) and Second Life. The system works by polarization so that pre-built environments work best but there is a function to ‘off-set’ normal images and Google Earth works particularly well. Students are able to discuss and identify 3D building models, position photos on maps and ‘fly’ through the Grand Canyon. In Second Life, students were able to visit a model of Sky News and interact with other teenagers in real time. Our use of the virtual worlds has been very limited and I think has great potential for development. It has been fascinating to note how students who are used to Xbox / Playstation gaming take to the navigation and controls easily and those of us who are infrequent game players have more difficulty.

5. Blogging

As a user of both Blogger and WordPress for my personal journals, I have been keen to introduce students to the benefits of this aspect of social software. In a previous school, I tried to get English literature students to use Blogger as ‘reading diaries’. This was fine when ICT equipment was available but became too infrequent to be useful. When setting up the school’s website, I used Blogger to create a News page that was more easily updated by students without FTP rights and provided an instant archiving resource based on month/date. CPD diaries for staff visiting the CLC are frequently completed in WordPress or Blogger and some staff do use them subsequently to communicate with members of their Departments or other schools. I have found this less likely with our student visitors, although the blogging capabilities of Apple iWeb combined with the multimedia functions built in to it have been very useful in building interactive portfolios for Media units of study. As part of my research into this mini-assignment, I started to use Twitter as a single line, simplistic blogging tool. As with most blogs, the audience is key to the reason for blogging – Twittering in a vacuum is pointless!

6. Personal Social

Personal social sites allow visitors to establish a network of online ‘friends’ to communicate with either live through an IM interface or via bulletin boards or leaving posts or email for each other. These services are now becoming more popular across generational divides. Examples include: Friends Reunited, Bebo, My Space and Facebook. Some personal social sites provide services where users post personal profiles, locations, ages, and gender and are able to search for a partner. Other services enable business networking and mentoring services (LinkedIn and Horsesmouth.co.uk). As someone who values Internet privacy, I had not used any of these sites up until October 2008 and deliberately signed up to see why they are so popular. Initially I signed up for Friends Reunited; I was able to reconnect with one secondary school friend and several from sixth form. Subsequent communication then took place via email. Bebo and My Space seem only to be inhabited only by secondary students. Facebook has been a revelation as the ability to cross communicate with work contacts and personal ‘real’ friends whilst online has been both quick and fun. Students I taught years ago have made contact, as have new business contacts. LinkedIn by contrast has been very slow and cumbersome use of the technology and poorly designed interface. In terms of professional use – I am unsure that my business contacts wish to know how much my students drink on weekends! However, a project in the new year for the CLC will include an aspect of creating a marketing buzz amongst Year 11 students and I think a personal social site may be the ideal tool to establish it.

There are many other issues to explore with social software and I feel I have merely touched the tip of the iceberg with this short assignment.

 

References:

Anderson, P (2007) What is Web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications JISC

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/techwatch/tsw0701b.pdf (accessed 28/12/08)

Wikipedia article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_software (accessed 28/12/08)

Five things (2010)

Five things achieved this year:

1. Involvement with Communities of Practice like TeachMeet
2. Visit to Los Angeles
3. Launched video sharing web site for schools
4. Contributed to a crowd-sourced book
5. Completed my MSc

1. My ongoing use of Twitter to ‘socialise’ with other educationalists led to contacts aware and conversant with the TeachMeet – an inset session led by and for teachers on practical tips for technology in the classroom. In association with an experienced TeachMeeter (@dughall), I helped stage, facilitate and broadcast the TM for Yorkshire and Humber LIVE from our TV Studio in Doncaster – *glows with pride*. This was so successful a model, our CLC used a similar format later in the year for Doncaster teachers to focus on PLMeet (Primary Languages) and MathsMeet.

2. Went to the USA for first time, staying in and around Los Angeles. A fascinating trip meeting some very interesting people. Enjoyed doing things I didn’t expect like visiting DisneyLand and driving a soft top sports car down the Sunset Strip… Managed to totally confound an Apple store Genius who looked the part but knew little practically (maybe my Brit accent?).

3. An idea way ahead of it’s time perhaps? Our website for sharing videos across the borough got launched and largely ignored… seems schools don’t like to share do they? Vutube.org.uk has 4 channels with social media tools for sharing, comments and rating… tied into our TV Studio and portable production kits, over 80 videos on already made by students and teachers… watch this space!

4. #MoveMeOn booklet available for download from this site – tips by teachers through Twitter.

5. Completed my Masters with my major dissertation on Videocasting (also available for download on the site).

TMYH2010 – TeachMeet for Yorks & Humber

The TeachMeet held last Friday night at the CLC was a great success and was streamed live from the TV Studio to the world. Here is a flavour of a TeachMeet:

Our Twitcam stream is in two parts; Part 1 stream is here and Part 2 can be viewed here.

@kevinmulryne did a webex recording of the screen presos at Friday night’s #tmyh2010 here on behalf of the NCSL.

@deputymitchell did a coveritlive session at#tmyh2010 – clear view here.

No-one an Island

Image (cc) kristineinindonesia on Flickr

In my current role in a City learning Centre, I have ample opportunity to meet and discuss ideas with enthusiastic, techno orientated teachers. They share ideas that sometimes lack the access to the necessary technology or have a bare bones idea but don’t know where to find the appropriate Web 2.0 site that will enable them to use it with kids. Sometimes, they are so inspired by the technology we have, they instantly and creatively think of ways to apply it in the classrooms. Of course this also happened in the past 5 schools I have taught at, but these edu-technologists were mere islands in the staffroom. Myself included.

Change is in the air thanks to predominant uses of certain web sites. It’s not that the web sites themselves are new (Facebook, Twitter and Google Wave more recently), just that the saturation point has reached a critical level that communication networks have arisen, grown and developed.  In the case of Facebook, it is now easy to find former teaching colleagues and students and make social links. As a useful tool though, I think it is limited (for instance, communication only takes place with people I ‘know’ or ‘know me’). Twitter on the other hand marries the best aspects of the asynchronous communication with a potentially global network – yes, there are limits (users can choose to ignore you!) but a meritocracy of comments, resource sharing and interconnectivity can develop. Google Wave has the potential to add synchronous communication to this list as well as maps, video and other multimedia. It seems rather closed at present though.

The Twitter ‘edu-technologists’ have grown as a community of practice (Wenger, 1998) that participate in repeat interactions, form emotional ties and shared collaborative activities. Members share resources via shortened hyperlinks or personal blogs and have a system that determines how they can be used (such as creative commons licensing).

‘The ebb and flow of messages expressing new ideas, comments, reactions, jokes, reflections, suggestions, keeps the community engaged and draws out new people, as well as encouraging others to return.’ (Preece, 2000)

As a thriving online community, certain education ‘tribes’ have developed that include face-to-face (f2f) physical contexts. There are arguments for the joining together of these disparate groups (see Leon Cych’sThe UK Education Tribes and why they should join together to effect real change) in order to create a mutually beneficent CPD programme. Social presence (Short, 1976) adds value to the 140 characters of Twitter in groups like Ed- Tech Round Up (ETRU) and the highly successful TeachMeets. Both of which are essentially online learning communities, sharing all characteristics outlined by Palloff and Pratt (1999).

#movemeon – crowd sourced from Twitter available in print from lulu.com for £12.25 or free download from e-book link above.

It is interesting also that the limitations of the 140 characters of Twitter also form part of it’s strength (brevity, less space for egotistical waffle) and develop it’s own CoP creative output (see for example, #movemeon – a crowd sourced book created by the Twitter edu-technologists for new teachers, each comment being 140 characters or less).

Observational Participation

As in the title of this post, No One an Island, I believe in active participation in the online communities I have briefly discussed. My contribution to a joint ETRU/TM session is documented in another post on this blog and I frequently follow ETRU online discussions (asynchronously) and live web casts of TeachMeet events. I contributed several articles to the #movemeon book and have been a co-organiser of a TeachMeet f2f session at my CLC. The overwhelming responses of participants are of value, purpose, effectiveness and appropriate communication. Do people feel confident to challenge and question as well as listen and learn? I hope to find this out by micro-interviewing participants in the forthcoming TeachMeet at the CLC.

How will e-learning improve the way I teach?

A fairly recent DfES Report (2003) concluded that the benefits of e-leaning tools were to enable experimental pedagogy in the classroom. Is that really why edtech teachers want to try new Web 2.0 type tools? Is there a myriad of reasons for using emerging technologies – beneficial to the teacher and learner and most of all to the teaching and learning that takes place. Secondly, I wanted to know how e-learning tools improve the way that teachers teach. So I set a little poll for the 500 or so teachers in my PLN on Twitter.

I picked out the top benefits to teaching I could think of and included a space for teachers to add their own reasons. Crucially, I included a more than one answer too as something requested from a previous poll I tried.

This accounted for just 5% of the vote and actually includes one of the main responses. Interestingly, 24/7 availability was important to one of the respondents.

More or less an even split between engaging and inspiring and including more than one of the other answers. There are many benefits of e-learning tools; not just to try new methods of teaching but also to inspire our learners showing that we can also push ourselves out of our comfort zones as they do daily. Some great debate started too!

Fascinating reading! Thanks to everyone who took part.

Web 2.0 for Teachers

http://static.slideshare.net/swf/ssplayer2.swf?id=2539863&doc=2539863

This presentation is a collaborative effort using resources from the web – feel free to reuse but please respect CC-NC-SA creative commons copyright.

Principally maths teachers from across Doncaster’s 16 high schools attended a half day workshop (The Maths User Group or MUG). Web 2.0 technologies were explored and discussed and will now proceed as part of group practice.

To follow the group on Twitter: @mugdoncaster and tag #mugdsclc.

Using Twitter for Maths/Science teacher support

Twitter for educational uses is frequently blogged about and there are some great examples on the net of using twitter as a tool in conferences, getting instant feedback froma class, using twittersheep to find out who is worth following etc. However, when you have a group of mainly maths and science teachers who you are trying to explain the value of web 2.0 technologies to, it can be very hard to convince especially if you do not follow many teachers of their subjects yourself.

As it happens, I have come across some great maths and science twittering teachers (eg. @Maths_is_it) who have pointed the way to wonderful resources like Plus+ online magazine and even suggested some great web resources.

To prove the point to my visitors, I used Tweepl.org to search for educators across the globe and followed as many as I could who were obviously both frequent twitterers and enthusiastic techno teachers. I think I added 300 in a day to be honest and of that lot at least 150 followed me back – which was the point. Then I asked the twitter-stream for examples of great web 2.0 sites for maths and science teaching…

looking for web 2.0 apps for maths and science – pls advise! Need next Monday to show power of Twitter community – pls RT
Mon Sep 21 06:36:16 +0000 2009

I also tried different ways of asking the same question:

Pls post links to web 2.0 resources for maths n science ks3 or 4. Pls RT
Mon Sep 21 12:02:59 +0000 2009

and:

are all web 2.0 apps designed for communication? Are any useful for science teaching? Pls RT
Mon Sep 21 16:59:47 +0000 2009

 

I got quite a few responses but also some puzzled questions asking whay I wanted them etc. as if I was doing a survey of some kind. The summary I made after a day or so was:

top web 2.0 for maths/science so far today: chartle, geogebra, puzzles.com, touchspin, etherpad and bubbl.us – pls RT, more?
Mon Sep 21 20:14:30 +0000 2009

As this was down to just a few people I suspected that the teachers in my stream were all historians, english teachers and the like – maybe all computer science or ICT specialists!!! How could I tell what subjects they had specific web 2.0 knowledge of? So, I produced a very quick poll at twtpoll.com to try and find out!

Tweet teachers – what’s your MAIN subject specialism? Pls complete poll at:http://twtpoll.com/damoward – pls RT
Mon Sep 21 20:09:06 +0000 2009

I kept the stream informed at intervals even if they felt unable to vote. Some DMs from particularly US teachers for clarification on certain anglo-centric terms (MFL = Modern Foreign Languages, aka Languae Arts in the US). Also, I knew the poll design wasn’t perfect it was supposed to be a snapshot of who on my stream felt they taught mainly maths/science or other.

Looking at the poll results so far – only 20% math/science teachers on twitter results:http://twtpoll.com/damoward
Sun Sep 27 21:15:02 +0000 2009

Some great results to my call for web 2.0 resources now that they felt ‘part of the community’:

web 2.0 maths/science: chartle, geogebra, puzzles.com, touchspin, etherpad, bubbl.us, Voicethread, Glogster, DoInk, Screenr, Animoto – more?
Sun Sep 27 21:23:55 +0000 2009

Thnx to recent pollsters! Maths/science teachers up to 28% vs. English/techno on 64%! Simple poll – curious
Sun Sep 27 22:03:43 +0000 2009

I closed the poll after a few weeks and then tweeted results:

I know it wasn’t precise enough for some of you – it was meant to be a quick snapshot — 66 teachers managed to vote
Tue Oct 06 20:22:55 +0000 2009

58% tweeting teachers were mainly from IT/Tech or English, 23% Math/Science. It was the latter group I aimed to encourage obviously…
Tue Oct 06 20:25:26 +0000 2009

Showing the use of the maths/science community (for resource collection), web 2.0 tech for data collection (twtpoll) and the result that there isn’t as many twittering maths/science staff but there are some out there worth following made this a great little experiment!!!

What is notebook creativity?

What is Creativity?

The concept of “creativity” has been frequently researched but disagreement remains as to what it is and how it develops. Some maintain that creativity involves fluency of thinking, originality, perceptiveness of problems and the ability to redefine and elaborate (Guildford cited by Lynch & Harris, 2001). Others point to personality qualities making one more creative, including tolerance for uncertainty, willingness to overcome obstacles, openness to growth, possession of personal motivation, acceptance of sensible risk-taking and willingness to strive for recognition. Still others believe that a person is not generally creative in all areas but more often in specific fields often related to the concept of Multiple Intelligences (Gardner).

Why is Creativity important?

The cultivation of creativity is key to programmes and strategies to produce positive outcomes. Programs that teach children creative problem-solving skills help them to become successful adults who can question the accuracy of information and put information to constructive use. Moreover, learners involved in creative activities (such as performing and visual arts) have been found to improve motivation.

Creative thinking allows individuals to “avoid boredom, resolve personal conflict, cope with increasing consumer choice, accept complexity and ambiguity, make independent judgments, use leisure time constructively, and adjust to the rapid development of new knowledge” (Strom, 2000).

How could I use a notebook to improve my creativity?

Get yourself a paper notebook and a pen or pencil. Any will do, but see below for my thoughts and reasons for investing in a bit of quality. All you need to do is dedicate 15 minutes per day with your notebook in a quiet place without distractions. A little like dedicated meditiation time or even cultivating a garden, you and your notebook can boost your motivation, your productivity and your creative juices!

Here’s an activity from http://bit.ly/1wPwPp adapted slightly based on my usage:

Get a timer and set it for 15 minutes – I use the one on my phone or watch.

• Go to a comfortable place with few distractions – do not stay at your desk; music should be instrumental and calming or do without. I use iPod headphones but don’t plug them in.
• Open your notebook.
• Start your timer.
• Close your eyes and see what pops into your mind. A window on to a landscape or quiet seaside also works.
• Once a topic comes to mind, write it on your notebook or draw an image or bubble diagram and stop thinking about it. You’ve put it on your list to clear your mind. It might be an issue, thought, concern, action item, ‘to do’, discussion, etc. or whatever.
• Keep at it for 15 minutes. Keep thinking of the topics and wait for the next. Breathe easy. Stay still. For some of us that will be 15 minutes that feels like an hour. Others will fall asleep this time. Try not to do that next time. Some will have three things in the notebook for the session. Others will have 23 notes. The goal is to make room in your day and mind to let things come to mind.
• When the alarm goes off, return to your routine. Take your notebook with you and integrate the most important idea with your plan for ‘what’s next’. This works well after an early morning coffee or at 3.30 when you are assimilating the day’s events. It isn’t important to repeat the activity at the same time every day or even in the same location. The notebook is the important thing.
• Repeat daily.

Why you shouldn’t use a laptop or any other computer and not an old-fashioned paper notebook: there are far too many distractions. For one, as soon as I go online my homepage is Twitter so that’s my first ½ hour dedicated to reading my streams and replying to a few. Emails can distract you, so can calendars and games. The notebook is physical, tangible and not connected to multimedia!

Which notebook?

Any will do, if you prefer lined or plain, squared or storyboard blocks all are suitable. Your notebook creative sessions should be as pleasurable as possible but as it’s nicer to drink wine in a crystal glass rather than a plastic cup, why not invest in a quality Moleskine notebook? These are available from http://www.moleskine.co.uk  and at Amazon.  At about 300 pages per book, they last around a year and make a great creative resource to review and look back on in years to come. I also like to use a certain style of pen but that’s another post!

Next year’s Twitter

When did you start thinking Twitter was sooo 2008? Maybe you did a harvest of your twitter followers and got rid of the 20% of people you follow who never seem to say anything of interest. Are you still looking for ways to use the Twitter tech with students? For me, I like the short responses given live during a learning session – do I trust kids to do it? No not really – the shy ones still won’t tweet. Despite backupmytweets.com what can you do with a tweeting stream afterwards? Suggest some ideas and I’ll include here.

So what about next year’s Twitter?

For now the smart money’s on Google Wave. This will also be an IM meets SMS meets Email but with room for lengthier comments and other features.

These features make a truly educational rather than banal use for Wave over Twitter.

The social APIs include embedded video, photos and games as seen above. let’s hope they include a bit.ly like URL shortener as automatic when you paste in an URL. If Google docs integrate too (why not?) it will be a great business tool too.