Technology for Learning

Twitter
Originally uploaded by mariacecita

I sent a tweet the other day asking for advice on how to capture and track all the great links that come flying across my Twitter Timeline.

@edtechworkshop admonished “I’m sure I will be blasted for this….but I say don’t even try! It’s a sure way to drive yourself nuts.If u need it u can retweet”. And from @kolson29, “i agree w/ @edtechworkshop – don’t try, it’s just too much. take what you can when you can.”

It’s like a mindstorm. As we examine our networks we find they are filled with information, some loosely connected and some literally stranded. So it is nice to come across nodes that are trying to be Storehouses of Stuff, at least where emerging technologies in education are concerned.

A couple that I’m more familiar with I’ll highlight here.

In a current graduate class, EC&I831 with Dr. Alec Couros we have started a wiki Technology for Teaching and Learning where we have been contributing information about tools, ideas, and case studies that we have learned about during our course. The suggested layout for each page is:

• What is it?
• How can it be used in teaching and learning?
• What are some good examples?
• What are some resources on the topic?

Our hope is that this resource will continue to be worked on by future classes and others.

Another example comes from the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). ISTE is a “nonprofit membership organization, ISTE provides leadership and service to improve teaching, learning, and school leadership by advancing the effective use of technology in PK–12 and teacher education” (from the website).

In addition to hosting seminars and meetings at its Second Life location, ISTE undertakes several initiatives. This project on emerging technologies is a grass-roots initiative intended to build a database of information about emerging technologies, their use and application in K-12, costs and support strategies. An article in the society’s mag, Leading and Learning, describes the project in more detail. Unfortunately you need to be an ISTE member to view the article, but you don’t need to be a member to contribute to and search the database.

The team created a wiki that was initially populated by working groups at NECC in June 2007. An overview page describes the four main components: Organizational Capacity, Process Management, and Operational Capacity, which also includes Infrastructure Management . Contributors are asked to post the candidate technology to as many categories as it applies.

Kathy Schrock, co-chair along with Ferdi Serim of the project, has produced a You-Tube video describing how to enter information into the database.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbqZCybJMTY&hl=en]

As George Siemens reminds us, knowing how to find the nuggets is as critical as knowing them to begin with.