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This is a very honest, open discussion between educators about why diigo or delicious -- I think the fact we can have this conversation within diigo at all says a lot for the usefulness of the tool. Diigo is an emerging tool for social bookmarking and collective intelligence.

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I can say without hesitation that all my traditional educational experiences combined, everything from grade school to grad school, have not taught me as much about learning and being a learner as blogging has. My ability to easily consume other people's ideas, share my own in return, and communicate with other educators around the world has led me to dozens of smart, passionate teachers from whom I learn every day. It's also led me to technologies and techniques that leverage this newfound network in ways that look nothing like what's happening in traditional classrooms.

My first published article. Presented on this at VSS. Try to get as many of my online students using Web 2.0 as possible, but its voluntary in my courses right now. Developing Web 2.0 class for next year.

Great post by Ben Grey on his participation in Constructing Modern knowledge - he hits several things including the fact that many at the conference said that computer programming should be mandatory for all students and a presenter who said that the problem with today is that too many people have a voice. My comments from Ben's blog are below. Great conversations happening here! Programming - OK, on the programming thing, here are my thoughts. In our curriculum our objective is not as much a specific LANGUAGE. One year I may use HTML with Javascript, this past year I used LSL - what I want kids to know that when they encounter programming and coding that there are certain conventions. Some are case sensitive, some are not. How do you find out how to add to what you know about programming? Do you know where to go to find prewritten code? Can you hack it to make it work to do what you want it to do? We spend about a week - two weeks but I require they know how to handcode hyperlinks and images - they are just too important. But to take 12 weeks or 6 weeks to learn a whole language - yes maybe some value - but to me the value is HOW is the language constructed or built. What are the conventions and how do I educate myself if I am interested in pursuing. What comes out of this time is kids who say either "I never want to do that" or "this is really cool, I love coding." They are doing very simplistic work (although the LSL object languages were pretty advanced) but since we don't have a full course nor time in our curriculum, I do see this as an essential part of what I teach. I'm not teaching it for the language sake but for the sake of understanding the whole body of how languages work - we talk about the different languages and what they are used for as part of Intro to Computer science and have an immersive experience. To me, this is somewhat a comprimise between leaving it out entirely or forcing everyone to take 12 weeks of it. I

I make choices that help me learn and do my best work. I am aware of the needs of others and do great things for them. I learn about myself and all that I can do by trying new things. I think of new ideas and share them with others. I think about people's feelings and help take care of others. I learn from my mistakes and build on the things that I do well. I work with others to learn and complete a task.  I push myself to do my personal best and keep improving. I learn about and respect different people and include everyone. I care for and learn from nature. I take time by myself to think about what I have learned

...by creating visuals, I support my own learning and understanding. * Ideas that I am trying to articulate become clearer in my mind * I am able to formulate and recall the connections between thoughts better * The sequence of my train of thought becomes apparent or can be revised better

""I am smart. But with my PLN, I am brilliant!" So true! The connections we make with those in our PLN help to make us brilliant. I have people in my PLN from all corners of the globe that I know I can call upon when I have a question, need feedback on a project or just to "talk shop." I consider all of these people my colleagues and friends. And it would have been difficult, nigh impossible, to have these kinds of connections and relationships without social media. So if these connections and relationships work so well for our educators, why could they not work for our students? "

From my perspective, being friends with students in an informal social medium like face book is fraught with dangers? Its like attending student parties. What do you think? *Note my comment & Chris Kennedy's!

A cross post from the original blog: As an avid Facebook user I'd have to give a big thumbs up to the consensus of the group. I, too, accepted friend requests from students and have stopped the practice. Our district developed a policy that strongly discourages teachers "friending" students on social networking platforms. This has made my life easier. When I receive friends requests I can decline and give them school policy as my reason. Students understand and it is never a big deal. It isn't just Facebook as I receive more friend requests through GoodReads. In response I am unrolling school GoodReads account for our learning commons, as well as a Facebook Group. This was we can be there for them in their network without crossing personal lines. Great discussion thread!

"Well the iPad has really hit the news in education circles since it's release last year. I'm sure lots of teachers are wondering whether it's hype and what the true potential of these devices are as tools for learners. I've had my iPad for about 8 months now, so I've decided to share my reflections so far on what I like about the iPad, what potential I feel it offers for developing course books and course materials and some of the problems."

Well the iPad has really hit the news in education circles since it's release last year. I'm sure lots of teachers are wondering whether it's hype and what the true potential of these devices are as tools for learners. I've had my iPad for about 8 months now, so I've decided to share my reflections so far on what I like about the iPad, what potential I feel it offers for developing course books and course materials and some of the problems.

This awesome website was found by my students. It is called "getting tricky with wikis" and has every trick you can imagine for making a wiki do cool things. I love how my students found this. I was in my classroom and kept going "wow, how did you do that." so, after two days of this project, they were blowing me away. That is because they've learned how to search for and find tutorials. Bookmark this one if you use wikispaces.

This from Angela Maiers - two videos that share the concept of Ideapaint. This video shows you how to do it. I need to show you pictures of my wall - I wanted to "wiki" the walls of my room and used brightly colored duct tape to designate areas where the students could share information. Perhaps with ideapaint I could do something similar. I love this idea. I think that perhaps next year (or maybe even over Break) I'll use ideapaint to make my whole room writeable - oh so cool!)

Make your whole room a place to write! What a great idea!

This looks absolutely amazing. Every classroom should have at least one wall of this stuff.

"I have access to an incredible wealth of credible resources, and I am given as much time as I need to synthesize information and determine how to best leverage it. I have opportunities to collaborate and learn with, and from, experts all over the world. I have the chance to participate in challenge based learning projects where I work to find solutions to a variety of real world problems, and I do it with individuals in locations that I have never been to." "You may be wondering where this amazing classroom is, and my response is unique given the time of day: at home, the gym, my car, the gas station, a school, a picnic table, a friend's house, my back deck, a restaurant… and that is just a few of today's locations. "

OK so if really kills I just will never trust them again. I've depended on it for years. My friend tried the new Inbox and posted on Facebook the other day about her dislike for it. I've got someone helping me with my email and I just don't want them to force me to move. We have workflow and when you mess with it we respond. After they killed Google Reader that was the straw that moved me from Blogger (Google's service) to Wordpress. I want my email left alone, dudes. We love it. Of course if we want it, we might have to pay for it. You get what you pay for. At this point, if it will get Google to stop messing with their services, I would.

"As I am reading probably my one hundredth CV and letter of application, all for one teaching position, I am reminded of how it is so often the smallest of things, the attention paid to the most obvious of details, that can influence the greatest decisions we make in our lives. I make no bones about how much I love my job. I love the variability, constant challenge and excitement working with children every day offers, and I am thankful that I have had colleagues and employers who have taken a chance and given me the opportunity to pursue my dream job."

"The education twitter-sphere has been all a-buzz today with stuff about helping (or failing) bright pupils. I am not at all qualified to contribute directly to the debate; I can only recount my own experiences, and anecdotal evidence is not very valuable in such a case. Because of my work as an examiner, I meet history teachers from scores of other schools every summer, and I do not think my approaches were in any way unusual. Yes, I taught at an independent school, so it was selective in terms of ability to pay fees. It was not very selective in terms of ability; plenty of our pupils did well to get C passes at GCSE with a couple of Bs thrown in."

"It was lunchtime but I didn't mind. Neither did my German teacher. I ran upstairs and entered her room. She was free - success! I pulled out my listening exam script: a set of learned responses to verbal questions that could come up in my GCSE exam. I'm sure she was hungry and I'm sure she wanted lunch. I didn't think about that when I was 16 years old. I probably should have."

"Young and inexperienced with rose-tinted goggles: I was mindful of my responsibilities as a new Science teacher. Expectations were high. When the Deputy Head of the school suddenly asked to observe one of my Year 9 Physics lessons I knew I had to perform well. As a thriving school with a great reputation, Denbigh definitely set the bar high. My Year 9 kids were typical 13 and 14-year-olds. Some days they were great and some days they'd just had enough. Keeping them on-task was a challenge for an unskilled teacher like me."

"What Makes a Great Teacher? Image credit: Veronika Lukasova Also in our Special Report: National: "How America Can Rise Again" Is the nation in terminal decline? Not necessarily. But securing the future will require fixing a system that has become a joke. Video: "One Nation, On Edge" James Fallows talks to Atlantic editor James Bennet about a uniquely American tradition-cycles of despair followed by triumphant rebirths. Interactive Graphic: "The State of the Union Is ..." ... thrifty, overextended, admired, twitchy, filthy, and clean: the nation in numbers. By Rachael Brown Chart: "The Happiness Index" Times were tough in 2009. But according to a cool Facebook app, people were happier. By Justin Miller On August 25, 2008, two little boys walked into public elementary schools in Southeast Washington, D.C. Both boys were African American fifth-graders. The previous spring, both had tested below grade level in math. One walked into Kimball Elementary School and climbed the stairs to Mr. William Taylor's math classroom, a tidy, powder-blue space in which neither the clocks nor most of the electrical outlets worked. The other walked into a very similar classroom a mile away at Plummer Elementary School. In both schools, more than 80 percent of the children received free or reduced-price lunches. At night, all the children went home to the same urban ecosystem, a zip code in which almost a quarter of the families lived below the poverty line and a police district in which somebody was murdered every week or so. Video: Four teachers in Four different classrooms demonstrate methods that work (Courtesy of Teach for America's video archive, available in February at teachingasleadership.org) At the end of the school year, both little boys took the same standardized test given at all D.C. public schools-not a perfect test of their learning, to be sure, but a relatively objective one (and, it's worth noting, not a very hard one). After a year in Mr. Taylo

I've been turning tweets that have had the most shares and favorites into photos for two reasons: 1) to test photo makers and 2) to satisfy my own curiosity if it is true that pictures travel further than text these days. Here's one that reached almost 100,000 people on Twitter. The exact tweet was "My wish for children is 1 to 1. Every 1 to have 1 person who loves them. Be the one, teacher. Be the one." Hope this encourages you as you share.