Thanks to the new SUNY course, I have created my own e-portfolio.  It will be a storage space for my  education based online activities.  

http://davidmcilroy.wikispaces.com/

The second SUNY course is well underway.  John Turner has set up a class ning (http://qaning.ning.com/group/sunycoetail), which is being utilised, very effectively, as a forum for discussion.  Most of the class are also using twitter (#qasuny), in order to share thoughts and ideas.

I’ve just started working with a group of academics from VCU in Virginia.  The project is a virtual world simulation, which focuses on the teaching and learning of Art, with links to English.  Should be interesting.

Timeline

1.       December 13 -  http://twitter.com/9CMacbeth  created.

2.       December 13 – 9C students create twitter accounts and join 9C Macbeth.  Students asked to respond “After every class during the Macbeth unit, you will have to ‘tweet’ a response, reflecting on the play and/or our lesson activities.”

3.       January 3 – First play specific post ‘tweeted’ (Re-read I.i. Is this an effective opening for the play? Why? Why not?). 

4.       January 3 – February 18 – 9C complete study of Macbeth.  Ongoing reflective discussion facilitated by http://twitter.com/9CMacbeth .

5.       February 18 – Final post-unit twitter based in-class discussion held.  The students’ ‘tweets’ are in response to the original MYP unit question, AOI focus and significant concept.  They also answer a question about the effectiveness of the twitter based reflective discussion.

Extent of Use

• At Qatar Academy, students in grade nine have homework given on two of the four weekly lessons.  During the Macbeth unit, the students were asked to ‘tweet’ after every lesson, with the understanding that their regular homework load would be lightened considerably.   9C unanimously agreed to this proposed approach to the unit.

Initial Reaction

• From the outset, all stakeholders, both the students and the teacher, reacted with enthusiasm to the use of twitter as a reflection tool.  Although some students, initially, forgot to ‘tweet’ after every lesson, within a week all members of 9A were actively reflecting on their learning via http://twitter.com/9CMacbeth .

Change Over Time

• Over the seven weeks of the Macbeth unit, all students ‘tweeted’ responses to the teacher posts.  Later in the unit, the students began to respond to each others’ ‘tweets’ and, on occasion, several students added their own posts, to which others responded.  The final post-unit twitter based in-class discussion highlighted how twitter had, as a learning tool, allowed the students to reflect on their own, and others, ideas. 

Evaluation

• The twitter discussion allowed students to ‘speak’ at once; it allowed those less confident to actively participate fully; it allowed students the opportunity to ask questions they would have been too embarrassed to ask in a traditional classroom discussion; it allowed students to, as digital natives, assist the teacher, a digital immigrant, in terms of any technical issues which arose; and it allowed students to reflect on theirs and others’ learning, via the very concise nature of the 140 character limit on ‘tweets’. 
• The short term gains for students are the following: regular, ongoing reflection on their current learning; the ability to see others’ ideas outside the classroom, in order to inform their own viewpoint.

• The long term gain for students are the following: collaborative learning and ‘discussion’ skills; a sense of community, built through the sheer weight of collective ideas; the building of positive relationships, through ongoing discussion and the sharing of ideas; an increased sense of self-esteem, through participation, a sense of inclusion and knowing that their ideas are valued by others within the twitter group.

Research

• http://adlunap.ro/eLSE_publications/papers/2008/015.-697.1.Grosseck%20Gabriela-Can%20we%20use.pdf (accessed 18.02.10)

The academic paper, by Romanian academics Gabriela GROSSECK and Carmen HOLOTESCU, discusses the educational uses, both positive and negative, of twitter in a Romanian context.  Their most telling point is that, “Twitter is meaningless without a network, which must be willing to share, to engage, to provoke, to discuss, etc.”  (Grosseck and Holotescu, 7).  This is the heart of education, the idea of building relationships with others, in order to support each others’ learning.  This was definitely the case with 9C and twitter.  Both student/student and student/teacher relationships developed throughout the twitter experience, leading to a safe, fun learning environment.

• https://www.cudenver.edu/Academics/CUOnline/FacultyResources/Handbook/Documents/2009/CU_Online_Handbook_2009.pdf#page=50 (accessed 18.02.10)

This chapter, from the online book The CU Online Handbook Teach differently: Create and collaborate, by Joanna C. Dunlap & Patrick R. Lowenthal, focuses on the use of twitter as an instructional tool.  One of the areas they focus on is how twitter is able to develop writing skills:

Writing concisely. Because a tweet is limited to 140 characters, this

encouraged students to write clearly and concisely. Although a very informal

writing style, it is a professionally useful skill for students to develop, especially

given the growing popularity of this category of communication tool.

Writing for an audience. Although Twitter elicits open sharing and an

informal writing style, it is nevertheless critical to know your audience and

share accordingly. Participating in the Twitter community helped our students

learn to be sensitive to their audience, and make professional decisions about

what perspectives and ideas they should publically contribute and what

perspectives and ideas should remain private. (Dunlap and Lowenthal, 47)

http://twitter.com/9CMacbeth forced students to write concisely and consider their audience, which are skills to be valued in the development of students as writers.

This site focuses on making thinking about thinking, within the classroom context, central to the learning process:

http://pzweb.harvard.edu/vt/VisibleThinking_html_files/VisibleThinking1.html

I’ve just returned from an excellent public lecture given by Thomas Friedman, the guy who wrote The World is Flat.  He is a very persuasive speaker.  I like what he had to say about children needing to learn how to learn.  That, and the fact that nothing replaces the good old fashioned values of teaching kids how to make appropriate decisions, particularly about the content they view on the internet.  He also believes in a liberal arts education, which reflects well the IB Diploma programme.

I’ve had real difficulties trying to upload my SUNY course video to the class ning. First of all, I created a 98MB-mpeg4 version, which according to the ning was suitable for uploading. No luck. Next, I compressed it down to a 29MB-mpeg4 version. Still no luck. I have now uploaded the 29MB version to youtube. And here is the link:

watch?v=4jUBKI4-JqA

Here’s an excellent article by Gary Stager, about project based learning:

http://www.thecreativeeducator.com/v05/stories/What_Makes_a_Good_Project

Last year, he visited our school and left us with a lot of food for thought, in terms of harnessing technology in the classroom.

What a year for gadgets.  First off, it was a second hand PS2 for the kids (yeah, right).  Next followed the 120min HD Flip camera.  Then it was onto a couple of netbooks: a Samsung NC10 for me and an Asus Eee 1001 for Katie.  Lastly, yesterday, the gadget of all gadgets, a 32GB 3GS iPhone.

Looks like this digital immigrant is hooked!

Check out this early seventies’ view of life in 2010:

http://2010book.tumblr.com/post/310745454/cover