Darren, Sheryl, Wes and I are extremely excited to be gearing up for K-12 Online 2007, the second annual conference for teachers, administrators and educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice! We wanted to be sure that you are aware of the schedule and request your input as we work to design and develop an exceptional conference experience.
Conference Schedule
If you haven’t already, please mark your calendars with the following conference dates and plan to participate.
15-19 October 2007 Week 1 (Strands 1 and 2)
22-26 October 2007 Week 2 (Strands 3 and 4)
27 October 2007 When Night Falls
All published times for the conference will be GMT, and links to time converters will be provided.
Requesting Input
We need your input! What topics would you like to see this year’s presentations address? What areas are of greatest interest and value to you?
In a comment to this posting, please let us know your ideas. Your input will be invaluable in the planning of K-12 Online 2007.
Calls for Proposals
Next step will be issuing calls for proposals — within the next few weeks!
I would be interesting in web 2.0 in special needs education. What programs will be good to work with and how?
School 2.0, Classroom 2.0 etc are all hotly being discussed as I type. It would be good to hear from one two right at the discussion front drawing some of those threaded discussion together and shaeading some light on how it may be played out in countries around the world.
Two subjects I would like explained a little better is Creative Commons and Second Life and the their use for education purposes. Most of what I read assumes you already know some basics and I really don’t know them. I am trying to understand them with no foundation to base them on.
But the biggest hope I have is that all the wikis, blogs, podcasts, live feeds, etc are given out in advance so I can get them unblocked by my district. Otherwise I have to participate vicariously after the two weeks my district takes to unblock sites has passed. That was very frustrating. I had to do a lot of my following from home when I was tired from the long day.
OK, I know I’m a collaborator kind of teacher, but I would love it if we could have a TEACHER-driven wiki that analyzed and envisioned the future. That we intentionally collaborated and shared best practices. I wish it could be a follow up to the conference so it wouldn’t take time away from the conference — OK, we’ve heard it, now we’re going to do it, now we’re going to share it.
Write a “wiki textbook” of sorts for wikis, podcasting, blogs, etc to harness the power in an intentional sort of way. With awards, etc. I might just know someone who might work with it…. hm… who could she be? (Actually, I might know several!)
I second the Second Life deal. I am just not seeing it yet. I asked my students what they did in there. They said, “What’s Second Life?” And these are gifted middle school students. If I can figure it out then maybe I can introduce them to something new.
It might also be cool to have some practical use courses added in. I know podcasting is beneficial, but I would like to hear from a teacher who has done it with iPods in the classroom. What were the guidelines for getting an iPod? When did they download to them? How long did the content stay on the iPod? Etc. This person could offer downloadable documents to help get a new teacher started. Maybe a student user agreement, podcast outline for students to use for creation, lesson outline, etc.
The same idea could go for any Web 2.0 tool.
I just popped in to say I’d like to see some sessions on video games in education… and I see there’s already two requests for Second Life sessions, so that’s a good start.
I can imagine sessions about repurposing commercial off the shelf games for educational purposes, modding existing games (like Second Life), and even designing games – whether or not the games with students get produced.
It will be interesting to see how this topic develops at f2f conferences this year, too. If last year was any indication, perhaps the k12onlineconference can provide resources that will be used at f2f events all year long. 🙂
I think we need to have one part focus on some specific ideas, tips, mini lessons centered on pedagogical use of web 2.0 tools. All teachers need ways to easily and effectively weave these tools into our curriculum/instruction. These could be quick takes on an activity that could be done with the tool in an engaging way. I’m thinking that these could be quick, easy to implement and help beginning web 2.0 teachers feel “Yeah, I could do that!” Those of us who have been using the tools could think “Yeah, what a great idea. I’m going to do that too!” of “I know just the teacher who would love trying this!”
For instance I could write about using podcasts for teaching students how to proofread. The write ups could be short and to the point and then participants could be pointed to links if they wished additional info.
* Overcoming insititional inertia and resistance
* Aligning Web 2.0 and other projects to national standards (not just NETS, but a more generic approach)
* Getting your message across
I could offer sessions on the above
* Second Life
(which I’d like to know more about)
Second life and the role of gaming in education.
Some of the sessions offered last year could certainly be offered again as you will have many new people coming on board. I am recommending this conference to graduate students in my class this summer as a way to keep the conversation going.
Thanks for offering this opportunity again!
To be more precise about my subject. Can web 2.0 help people with disabilities to be more a part of society?
YES!! I am disabled in our world but enabled in the technological world! I see my students released from the heaviness of handwriting so they can compose words. I see students release from writing altogether and speaking thoughts. These things are possible because of technology! We all have challenges, we all can be winners in a web2.0 environment.
@ Mrs. Durff; I know yor right, because I also see that in my classroom. Can we take the web 2.0 for education in our classrooms or should we think of other things? Are the barriers for special needs education higher to work with web 2.0? How should I work with web 2.0 in special needs education?
Could this be a subject for a presenation?
The barriers are two-fold. Technology and attitudes must both be overcome in order to use any web2.0 tools. I have zero computers in my classroom, so I assign homework on a blog, occasionally using a wiki or podcast. Many parents want me to assign homework in the book and are surprised when they find out there is no book. Every learner is different and learning must be differentiated for them. Web 2.0 tools are one way to differentiate. The growth I see in some “challenged” kids is remarkable, but then aren’t we all challenged in some way?
I think that it is more attitude then technology. First you must have the attitude to learn something new and see the bennifit of it. Then you start learning the technology. I think that web 2.0 tools are not haevy that you need very new computers.
I must say that it is interesting what you do in your class. I think that the attitude here at my school isn’t right to do it like you do. But I’m thinking a lot about how to get web 2.0 like blogs and wiki’s and podcasting into the classroom.
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I would lobve to see some discussion on ePortfolios…what makes them successful? How can we incoporate them with Web 2.0 tools, how can they enhance reporting to parents, some examples of how teachers are using these with their classes would be really interesting.
Thanks
I’m interested in hearing what kids of 2.0 activities are happening at the elementary level. Also, as a beginner, I hope that the needs of teachers just learning about 2.0 will be addressed.
Thanks!
I podcasting with primary grade students. I am not their teacher – I am an upper grade teacher and the librarian.
@mrs.Duff,
That will be a great subject.
I would like to see sessions on
– How teachers are creating video for TeacherTube and YouTube. What tools do you need? How much time does it take?
– How teachers are using existing Teacher Tube and YouTube videos in their classrooms.
– How teachers/students are using collaborative document creation tools like GoogleDocs.
Web 2.0 vehicle for teachers’ peer collaboration and personal learning and howtos. Many of the above suggestions could become topics. Steve Hargadon’s Classroom 2.0 in Ning is a good example.
Sessions directly relating to everyday life in the classroom – projects that are usable now.
Thank you for the opportunity to make suggestions/requests. As well as the practical support sessions being requested above, which I fully support, would it also be possible to invite a number of academics, who are working in this field, to present a series of papers? In particular, it would be good to hear about research into Web 2.0 technologies’ impact on teaching and learning; the classroom dynamic; the changing nature of assessment; school community involvement etc.
Cheers.
We are working with our staff to increase the use of blogs. For “Newbies” and beginner-level users, I think it would be GREAT to have workshops offered where these individuals are offered the opportunity to share what the more experienced bloggers are doing and how their blogs are being used.
Additionally, I would like to see something on E-learning and how it can co-exise with the traditional classroom. I have been doing some practical research in that area at IRCC.
Thanks,
Dlenarti
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I would like to see a discussion of technology in the classroom in low-income neighborhoods. While I’m sure it is out there somewhere, I have yet to find a discussion that deals with the specific problems of teaching in inner-city schools in low-income neighborhoods where the schools lack well funded technology programs and the kids tend to not have access to computers, ipods, or the internet at home.
I’d also be interested in hearing any discussion about web 2.0 and bilingual education.
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[…] As you draft your proposal, you may wish to consider the presentation topics listed below which were suggested in the comments on the K-12 Online Conference Blog: […]
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As a teacher in elementary school in Israel, it is sometimes quite dismaying to see the amount of tools which are not accessible to my students. Both the Hebrew and Arabic languages have requirements which are on the whole not catered for.
I would like to see the conference raise awareness to the needs of the international community, encouraging use of tools such as dotsub.com for uploading transcribing and translating video, and other tools which support unicode input.
I also agree with Anne Davis ”
we need to have … focus on some specific ideas, tips, mini lessons centered on pedagogical use of web 2.0 tools. All teachers need ways to easily and effectively weave these tools into our curriculum/instruction.”
Many teachers feel too overloaded with work to start learning new tools and technologies, and then to figure out how to apply them in their curriculum, if we could set up some “model” lessons which are linked to the curriculum, learning the technology will have a focused objective
I am high school Spanish teacher who is looking for ways to lean more towards a web enhanced classroom environment. I would like to hear from more foreign language teachers about what technology they are using in their classrooms, or what other teachers can suggest.
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