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#ELD11 Harnessing Social Networks in Your Classrooms

Lisa Thumann — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 18:34:49 +0000

I was honored to be asked to speak at the inaugural Emerging Learning Design conference on June 3. When I first spoke with AJ Kelton about it, we decided together that speaking about how middle and high school students are using social networks in their classrooms would be a suitable topic. The assumption was that current college students most likely viewed social networks, like Facebook, differently than those having used these types of sites since adolescence. The plan was to present Harnessing Social Networks in Your Classrooms.

There were some additional resources that the folks that attended the session and I spoke about:

Social Media: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2011/05/social_media_two_steps_forward.html

Twitter Goes to College
http://www.usnews.com/education/articles/2010/08/16/twitter-goes-to-college-

The Effect of Twitter on College Students Engagement and Grades
http://blog.reyjunco.com/pdf/JuncoHeibergerLokenTwitterEngagementGrades.pdf

50 Ways to Use Twitter in the College Classroom
http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2009/06/08/50-ways-to-use-twitter-in-the-college-classroom/

Twitter Chats and Hashtags:

Directory of #highered tweetups, hashtags & twitter chats
http://edutweetups.com/twitter-chats/

#HigherEdChat
#collegechat
#PhDchat
#lrnchat
#edchat

Cybraryman’s Educational Twitter Hashtags
http://www.cybraryman.com/edhashtags.html

I really enjoyed the conversation that proceeded my presentation. The attendees spoke about honest concerns like friending students, time spent on computers and filtering. I wish we had more than the 55 minutes allotted, but there were so many other wonderful presentations to attend and only so much time to go around.

Tagged: EDL11, Edmodo, Montclair, Social Networks, Twitter

Spontaneous Professional Development

Lisa Thumann — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 02:39:07 +0000

Tomorrow at the NJECC monthly meeting I’m going to speak for a bit about “Spontaneous Professional Development”. With the budget cuts in NJ schools this past year, many educators don’t have funding for PD. Our meeting this month will be about how schools are dealing with the cuts, what types of PD their districts are spending money on and of course, how we can harness the power of our networks to bring in free professional development virtually.

I hope I don’t put myself right out of business.

Here’s the slides I will be sharing along with a list of the resources I will be talking about. (Please leave a comment if you have others to add as we would all benefit from your resources.)

Feel free to follow the #NJECC hashtag on Twitter during tomorrow morning’s meeting.

Educational Hashtags – http://karlanakulseth.com/?p=204
Twitter – http://twitter.com
NJECC Ustream Channel -http://www.ustream.tv/channel/njecc
Classroom 2.0 – http://www.classroom20.com/
Classroom 2.0 Live – http://live.classroom20.com/
- Classroom 2.0 Live on iTunes – http://tinyurl.com/cr20liveitunesu
iTunesU – http://www.apple.com/education/itunes-u/
Learn Central – http://www.learncentral.org/
Global Education Conference – http://www.globaleducationconference.com/index.html
- Global Education Conference: Recorded Sessions – http://www.globaleducationconference.com/recordings.html
Apps Edu Certified Trainer Channel – http://www.youtube.com/user/AppsEduCT
- AppsCT Webinar Schedule – http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/latest_info.html

Tagged: appsct, Elluminate, NJECC, PD, Professional Development, Twitter, UStream, Webinars

What My Droid Does – Part 7

Lisa Thumann — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 21:32:07 +0000

There have been two things that I have wanted my Droid to be able to do in the last month or so that it hasn’t been able to. It’s not really my Droid though. See the cases in point:

ISTE released an app for the iPhone. As I went to the conference this year, I would have liked an app for my Android phone as well. I made due with the mobile app, but I am hoping that next year they play “equal time” as my grandfather used to call it.
I want to be able to tether my Droid to my iPad as I do to my laptop and my netbook for Internet access where there is no wifi. It’s physically impossible as there is no connection that will run from a Droid to an iPad. But I did see while I was at ISTE a link to this resource go by in the Twitter stream. I re-Tweeted How to: WiFi Tether a Motorola Droid to an iPad and was asked by Chris Craft whether I was willing to root my phone. I’ve read up on Rooting quite a bit and have not yet taken the plunge. When and if I do decide to root my Droid, I will then be able to use it as wifi for my iPad.

I looked back at the previous six posts I have written about what my Droid does for me and I have some updates to make on a few of the apps.

What My Droid Does – Part 1

What My Droid Does – Part 2

What My Droid Does – Part 3

What My Droid Does – Part 4

What My Droid Does – Part 5

What My Droid Does – Part 6

First of all, there are so many apps for Twitter. Find one you like and be happy. I have been happy since they updated the Twitter for Android app and then I found TweetCaster.

In addition to the standard Twitter functions, TweetCaster features:

Multiple Twitter account support
Integrated retweets
Integrated Twitter lists
Notifications
Offline tweet caching
URL shortening (and previews)
Photo attachment
Threaded direct messages
Font/Theme customization
Landscape support
Profile editing
Tweet filtering

WordPress for Android

WordPress for Android made some major updates to their app earlier this month.
With the recent version 1.3 you can now:

see your page views
see your post views
see your referrers
check out your search terms
and view your number of clicks

I have also been happy that I can now moderate multiple comments at once using their new “bulk edit” feature
and should I choose to post from my phone, I can really format my text using their visual editor.

QR Code for Open Spot

There are a few new things that I wanted to mention.

Open Spot – http://openspot.googlelabs.com/

So over time, the concept behind Open Spot is pretty cool. To save time, gas, and to reduce pollution, Google released this app to help users find open parking spaces easily.

It will only find the open spaces of Open Spot users, so until lots of people are using it, the app is not going to be effective, but to make it work, all you so it place a pin on a map within the Android app to share the space you are abandoning. The pins are left color coded as empty to fellow users for 20 minutes until they expire.

Source http://www.slashgear.com

I installed Barnes and Noble’s new Nook app for the Droid today. I received an e-mail from B&N yesterday and was easily able to browse for it in the Android Market and download and install the free app. Once launched, I logged in using the B&N credentials I signed up with for my free iPad books (but that expired a while ago) and there they were on my Droid. Awesome.

I’m waiting for Android 2.2
I’m talking about Froyo – the next update to the Android operating system. If you have one of the newer Droids, you already have it. I have one of the older ones (I bought it waaaaaay back in November 2009) so I have to wait until Verizon pushes the update down to me. I’ll be writing about that and my top 10 apps as well as my experience using my Droid in the UK in my next post.

Tagged: Android, applications, apps, Droid, Froyo, open spot, Tweetcaster, Twitter, Wordpress

Reinventing Yourself

Lisa Thumann — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:00:15 +0000

Would you want to?

If you could stay exactly who you are in the physical world, but reinvent your digital identity, would you?

As I was sitting is Michael Wesch’s phenomenal keynote yesterday morning, I started thinking some more about my digital identity and jotted down some questions.

What would I do if I could go to a new school and reinvent myself?
Would I erase everything from the Cloud?
Would I include pictures of my children, family and friends online?
Would I share all of my lessons, presentations and my blog?

So I was watching the Tweets this morning from #BLC10 and saw the link for a site from MIT fly by. I had been meaning to check it out and when I got to the Keynote, I pulled it up and, unfortunately, got a little nauseous as I watched my life unfold before my eyes. http://personas.media.mit.edu/personasWeb.html

One of the many statements that Michael Wesch said that will stay with me was that we should make our place in the world. If you aren’t leaving breadcrumbs for your students, your friends, family and followers, why not? If you could reinvent yourself, what would you leave out, if anything? What would you add? Just some things to think about.

Tagged: blc10, digital footprint, MIT, November Learning, Twitter

BLC10 25 Ed Tech Leaders To Follow

Lisa Thumann — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 16:18:35 +0000

Whether your PLN is overflowing or just starting to grow, this list may help you to refine your network to best suit your learning needs. Today I will be sharing the slidedeck with some folks at BLC10.

These leaders will challenge your assumptions, answer your questions and make you think. If you are not sure where to look for the right people, or you just want to learn about some fresh voices. These ed-tech leaders write blogs, maintain wikis, UStream their keynotes and publish their podcasts. You can find them all over the cloud. (This list will not include any of the presenters at BLC10 as attendees can meet them face-to-face.)

Tagged: blc10, bloggers, edtech, leadership, PLN, professional learning network, Slideshare, SocialBookmarking, Twitter

Foursquare, More Square, We Square, Your Square

Lisa Thumann — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:32:59 +0000

I started using foursquare back in January during Educon when a few friends checked into my car. I didn’t really get it, (if you don’t either watch this video) but I thought it was funny and I wanted to join in. I signed up for an account and found that it was really easy to use from my Droid, so I started creating venues and checking in when I would travel for work and go to different schools in NJ.

I soon realized that I could send my check-ins to Twitter (which I rarely do) and to Facebo0k. Foursquare actually became a great tool for me to add status updates to my Facebook page and I soon realized that many of my ed tech friends were using it there as well. I figured that anyone that didn’t want to see those posts would just hide them.

After using foursquare so much at ISTE10 and even presenting about it in the Social Butterfly Lounge, I decided I might review a few basics as many have an interest in it on their way to BLC10 this week.

Here’s a A How To on foursquare. This one will answer many of the simple questions you might have that you are hesitant to ask an existing foursquare user.

How to pick your Mayorship battles is one that some folks I know (present company included) should take a look at. Chris Craft has coined the phrase “fauxsquaring” based on a recent competition for the Mayorship of a specific venue. This article provides some reasonable guidelines.

As of tonight, Alec Couros is the Mayor of BLC10. There will be some competition as we all arrive tomorrow for pre-conferences and EubloggerCon East.

How to be cool (and not uncool) on Foursquare is something every foursquare user should read after they’ve earned their first few badges. As I’ve already pointed out, there are some guidelines to follow.

So if you can have some fun with it, look at it as a way to track where you’ve been, possibly get a free coffee or a coupon for your troubles, then you’re in for a treat. If you’re look for educational value, look here as I don’t plan on using foursquare in the classroom any time soon.

Tagged: blc10, ebce10, Facebook, Foursquare, ISTE10, Twitter

#ISTE10 Where to go, What to see, What to do

Lisa Thumann — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 15:22:13 +0000

If you are attending ISTE10 next week, you have most likely been flooded with e-mails regarding events, booth #’s, Tweet-ups and every imaginable social gathering. I’ve assembled a list of some of the highlights of what I’ve received with some of my notes as I thought it might be helpful for those that have not attending ISTE before or are looking for some guidance as to how to manage their time. (I’m sure I’ve missed something. Please feel free to leave additions in the comments.)

Are you deciding where to go and what to attend?

Drop past the ISTE Bloggers Cafe to meet Sue Waters, The Edublogger and leave your contact details with her to WIN one of 10 twelve month Edublogs Pro subscriptions per day. (This is also a great place to meet folks from your PLN and have those more informal, yet priceless, conversations that make the trip to ISTE so worthwhile.)
The recently announced Global Education Conference will be at the Global Collaboration Session Sunday night from 7:00 – 8:30pm in the Convention Center Lobby A, table #P19.
Visit ISTE’s Social Butterfly Lounge to learn about Twitter, FourSquare, Facebook and more. (Stop by to see me on 6/29 at 2pm)
Don’t forget to use your conference planner to keep your self organized (make sure to schedule a visit to booth #2419 – the yolink booth to visit me)

Are you looking to present something?

Sign up to present at ISTE Unplugged. This is your chance.
Participate in the Classroom 2.0 LIVE! broadcast of their show live from the Blogger’s Cafe / ISTE Unplugged area on Wednesday from 1:30pm – 2:30pm.

Are you looking to stay connected?

For instant conference updates, visit ISTE Connects. Here you’ll find blog posts, Twitter and RSS feeds with links to everything and everything having to do with ISTE10.
Visit the ISTE 2010 Ning to connect to other conference attendees.
The official conference hashtag is #ISTE10.
Check out the folks blogging about #ISTE10.
Go mobile with the new ISTE app (hey ISTE! – where’s the one for the Droid?)

I hope this has been helpful.

I’m looking forward to ISTE10 and reconnecting face-to-face with many from my PLN that I only get to see this time of year as well as meeting those of you that I have only yet to communicate with virtually.

Tagged: Classroom2.0, Edublogger, Facebook, Foursquare, hashtag, ISTE, Iste Unplugged, ISTE10, Twitter, yolink

What MY Droid Does – Part 6

Lisa Thumann — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:25:23 +0000

QR Code for this post

One of the fantastic features of the Android phones is the ability to scan QR Codes. So, what’s a QR Code, you ask? My way of explaining it is that a QR Code is a symbol that stores a URL. When your camera phone scans it using a barcode scanner (link), it automatically launches its browser and goes to that web page. This is really convenient when shopping, viewing a website (this is the QR Code for this post is to the left), or even Geocaching.

You can make your own QR Codes easily. SO EASILY.

1. Copy and paste the following URL into your browser (don’t hit ENTER yet…)
http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=qr&chs=150×150&choe=UTF-8&chld=H&chl=
2. At the end of the URL (after the “=” sign), paste or type in the URL that you want your QR Code to link to – my QR Code linked to http://thumannresources.com/2010/04/22/what-my-droid-does-part-6/
3. Hit the ENTER button
4. Save the QR Code image to your hard drive (or some other location)
5. Once someone scans this QR Code, it will take them to your specified URL. (Go ahead. Try it. Scan my QR Code.)

For more information on QR Codes see:

Source: http://googlemobile.blogspot.com/

Then there’s the recent release of Google Earth for the Android phone. It works really well on my Droid. I will say, though, that I would only use it in an areawith 3G. Of course I wanted to see my house, so I went to the menu and selected my location and went to my house – and then pinched my fingers to zoom in. I then went back to the menu and clicked on the Search menu and used the voice feature to search for Disney Land. Once there I tapped the “Look Around” button and changed my view so that I could get a good look around. I also went back to the main menu and explored the different layers to see what types of information were available.

You can visit the Google Earth for your Mobile phone on the web at http://www.google.com/mobile/earth/ or directly on your phone at http://m.google.com/earth.

Oh, and here’s the QR Code for Google Earth in the Android Apps Market:

QR Code for Google Earth

Lastly, I’ve been using Seesmic on my Droid. I had been noticing that many were Tweeting from it, so I thought I would give it a try. The mobile version of Seesmic seems to be a full featured application. It has:

Easy access to Twitter Lists that I’ve created and that follow me
A tutorial built right into the application
You can manage your profile from within the app
Varied selection of external services (photos, URL shorteners, video hosts)
Options for notifications

Here’s the QR Code for Seesmic in the Android Apps Market:

QR Code for Seesmic

Tagged: Android, Droid, geocaching, goo.gl, Google Earth, QR Codes, Seesmic, Twitter, URL Shrinker

Social Networking in High School

Lisa Thumann — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:50:39 +0000

Is the average high school student able to define social networking or give an example of it? I thought most would use Facebook as an example, but during a recent visit to a local high school, one freshman student used e-mailing his teacher in First Class as an example. Many of his classmates were of the same opinion as he, so it opened up a much-needed conversation during which this classroom full of 20 students spoke about where they preferred to network with each other.

Their preferred places to communicate with their friends:

Facebook
X-box Live
Twitter (There were common popular Tweeters they followed.)
MySpace (Less than 20% of the students in the room admitted to using it.)

As for social networking in schools, the students felt that there were just too many places to have to check already (a complaint that teachers share themselves). It was the one topic of conversation that period that everyone in the room seemed to agree on. The complaint was that in one subject area the teacher would use Moodle, the next Google Apps, the next Diigo and that ultimately they forgot to check something and missed turning in an assignment.

Image Credit: http://treatingyourself.com

When asked which network would be the preferred place to use for school, students had a tough time coming to a consensus. We posed a similar request as to which gaming system the majority of the class would prefer to use (ie X-Box, Wii, Nintendo DSi) and they could not make a decision either. We reasoned that teachers felt the same and found it difficult to find a content management system or collaboration tool that satisfied every staff member in a building which resulted in all these different tools the students had to use.

The conversation ended with a link to a Wallwisher we had set up in the hopes that those that didn’t particate in the conversation might take a stab at it this way. They didn’t really. The comments left were from the same boys (the young ladies remained very quiet during our session together) that shared their opinions during class and the tool, in this case, didn’t reveal anything that our talk hadn’t uncovered. But it did introduce the classroom teacher to an easy way to post a question or topic and have students share answers.

Yet another place to have to check for information.

Tagged: Diigo, Facebook, First Class, Google Apps, highschool, Moodle, MySpace, Social Networking, students, Twitter, Wallwisher, X-Box Live

How Can We Help?

Lisa Thumann — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:41:00 +0000

The "Fail Whale" made an appearance at the #140conf meetup

It was the last question asked from the audience at the #140conf meetup at the New York Times building yesterday in Manhattan. Just over 70 social media gurus gathered to listen to three members of the NY Times team speak and then a panel of educators (of which I was honored to participate in) moderated by Parentella.com founder Aparna Vashisht. Liz Pullen, Deven Black and I fielded questions regarding how Twitter was being used by educators for professional development, with students, and as a social networking tool in education.

Here’s a link to the Ustreamed recording of the panel if you are interested in listening/viewing the discussion that Aparna moderated. I think that many in the audience were surprised at just how networked teachers CAN be. So I think that when Chris Kieff closed the conversation that evening with “How can we help?” we were right to answer with Donors Choose and to just continue supporting educators as professionals.

Tagged: #140conf, donors choose, educators, panel, PD, Personal Learning Network, PLN, Social Networking, Twitter, UStream