The following is an email I sent to our faculty as we begin our 1:1 journey this year.
Enjoy.
August 18, 2008
To: CHS Faculty
From: Michelle
For those of you who are teachers of freshmen, the day is fast approaching when a class full of students will walk into your classroom with a laptop in their hand. The first laptops will go home with the students in D period Computer Applications on Tuesday and the remainder of the students will receive their laptops on Wednesday.
That means that as soon as Thursday, every student who walks through your door will have at their fingertips a machine that can be the most powerful learning tool they’ll ever own.
24 hours a day.
7 days a week.
All year long.
But remember, it’s only a machine. It can’t think, plan, organize, create, or inspire on its own. All of those things require a good teacher–that’s where you come into the mix.
This summer, we spent a busy week trying to prepare ourselves for this change. I know that many of you did even more preparation in the time between our Digital Learning Summer Institute and the first day of school. Now, the time to put all that planning into play is here. If you’re still wondering how you’re going to make it work, don’t worry.
We’re all in this together.
I’ve spent a lot of time myself this summer talking to teachers in 1:1 schools, asking them what advice they’d give you on your first days. Here are the words they selected just for you:
1. Just Breathe. (Heather B, Florida)
Sometimes I feel like I take a deep breath in August and don’t exhale until sometime in December. Things will happen and problems will crop up, but life and learning will go on. Make sure they go on in your classroom too.
2. Do not go Quietly into your classroom. (David T, Vancouver, Canada)
David shared with me a great multimedia piece he put together for his teachers that Colleen and I will share with you in the near future. What he wants you to remember is that this is your chance to shake up your curriculum. Be inventive, be creative and be willing to excite your students about learning.
3. It’s ok to change; I had to. (Josh A, Nebraska)
I’m hoping this laptop venture will give us all a chance to reflect and change our classrooms for the better. Be willing to make that change happen when it’s time.
4. Give yourself permission to try new things. Give yourself permission to even fail sometimes (as long as you learn from it).
A few years ago I had the opportunity to take an improv class taught by Randy Nelson of Pixar who talked about his experiences there and as a member of the juggling/comedy troupe The Flying Karamazov Brothers. One of the things he said to us still resonates with me today: “You have to honor failure, because failure is the basis of all success.” If you want to succeed at this venture, make sure you give yourself permission to fail every now and then. Nothing great ever happens without the willingness to risk failure.
5. Plan for the small things so you can work on the important things. (Dean M, Kansas)
When you first began teaching, if you were like me, you planned out every step. Make sure you do that now too. Plan for how you want your students to start each day in your class with their laptop. (Should they wait for directions before opening them? Should they look for directions you’re projecting to know what to do?) Plan for what you’ll do when things don’t go as planned. (If a website is blocked, do you have an alternate? What if wireless access isn’t available?) Plan for how you’ll end each class to make time to save and pack up. Plan for what you’ll do when a student doesn’t have his laptop or needs a battery swap. Then once you’ve planned, share your plans with your students.
6. Take it slowly. The kids think they know everything thing about computers, and so do the teachers. Somewhere in between is the truth! (Ginger L, Kansas)
Remember that our students have only spent about 4 hours of class time with their laptops so far. It’s as new to them as it is to you. Don’t feel like you have to plan a video project for the first week of class. It’s ok to start with something as simple as a web activity or an essay. Move to the big things when you and the students are ready.
7. Learn from fellow teachers - even when some of the teachers are your students.
When you can, give your students a chance to teach you and their peers. Let them present to the class. Let them help one another when they’re stuck. Give them the opportunity to shine.
8. Don’t be afraid to say, “I don’t know.”
It’s ok if you don’t know everything when you begin. It’s how your students feel almost every day in your classroom. Trust that it will all come together even if you say, “I don’t know.” Just make sure you follow it with “Let’s find out.”
9. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Let them know that you are approachable, available for assistance and guidance, and the 1st round of drinks on Friday afternoon are on you (Kim C, Texas)
I am and I will…McGuire’s anyone?
10. Don’t forget to enjoy the moment. Treasure the good times with your students as not all days will be filled with good times but the bad times make the good times that much sweeter and rewarding. (Sharon E, Virginia)
And that, my fellow teachers, is the advice we give you to start this journey. Thank you for joining us on it.
When we began preparing for our laptop program rollout, teachers were excited but a bit nervous. One thing we’ve tried to do is give them a chance to communicate with us and with one another about the challenges they see in the year ahead. We began a Google Doc for them to use to share their questions, fears, and frustrations as they thought about how their classroom would change after our 1:1 rollout.
One topic where lots of questions arose was how to manage a classroom in which every student had their own laptop. What would happen, they asked, when students weren’t paying attention, were using laptops to cheat on tests, were too busy chatting online to contribute to classroom discussions? What about students who forgot their laptop, didn’t charge them before class, or had a problem serious enough to render their laptop inoperable?
During our Digital Learning Summer Institute, teachers got a chance to think more about these questions and how their own teaching style would mesh with managing a 1:1 classroom. Here’s how we got the conversations started…
Our institutes are known for keeping teachers engaged and interested in the content through lots of interactive and kinesthetic activities. To begin this discussion, we placed several plastic “bugs” at each table while they were at lunch. When the teachers returned, we began with the premise “What bugs you about teaching in a 1:1 classroom?” and shared the responses we had received via the Google Doc:
We then tried to put each concern into context. What we wanted them to see was that the problems are nothing new - kids have been socializing, cheating, and coming to class unprepared as long as there have been classrooms. The technology isn’t changing the problems we see - it’s just changing the tools students use to do the things that have always bugged teachers. To bring this point home, we invited them to watch as we showed video clips from “Modern Classrooms” and used those to discuss the issues at hand…
The clips were from the Prelinger Collection at the Internet Archive. Remember those cheesy 1950s and 60s educational videos? Seems that many of them document the same issues our teachers are worried about in a laptop environment. What we wanted our teachers to see was that for the most part, what worked for them before will work for them now. The discipline structures needed to manage a classroom well don’t go out the window just because every student is sitting in front of a 13″ screen.
Here’s an example from our talk on keeping students on task - the clip is from the Young America Films entitled “The Procrastinaor“
After the video we talked about what used to distract students from their work: Comics tucked inside a binder, notes from friends, listening to music, and more. We then talked about the new distractions that come with a laptop like playing games or surfing shopping websites. We asked teachers, “How did you manage these distractions before and will the same strategies work now?” For the most part, they found that most issues could be resolved using the same strategies they were already using:
After going through each of the 7 issues that teachers identified (Preparation, Socializing, Keeping on Task, Forgetting Materials, Cheating, and Bullying) we gave them a chance to talk to one another and to share strategies that had worked for them.
To culminate, we placed “bug boxes” on each table to collect all the things that were bugging them and then asked them to continue their discussions throughout the week by writing their personal bugs on slips of paper to share with others. By keeping the topic on the light side and making sure to give them time to talk to one another, they began to realize that they truly will be in this together when the year begins. They also realized that if they prepare lessons that are engaging while developing a management strategy that matches their own classroom philosophy, their chance of a successful rollout is much higher.
Do I think that this one activity will solve all the problems that come with managing a 1:1 classroom? No. But I do hope that if nothing else, it gave teachers a chance to think about what they need to do to get their own classroom ready.
How do you prepare your teachers to manage a technology-rich classroom? I’d love to hear your ideas and strategies!
Steve Dembo posted an excellent look at Plurk on his blog today and did a great job of outlining what many of us in the Plurk community have seen in the last few days. I certainly don’t want to duplicate his great overview, but I’ve been reflecting quite a bit on Plurk in the last few days and want to build on his thoughts and why I see Plurk as an even more powerful tool to build a Personal Learning Network than Twitter.
Point 1 - Plurk supports conversation rather than pontification
Steve (teach42 on Plurk) mentions one of the most powerful tools of Plurk - the ability to follow a conversation because all replies are threaded under the initial post. It’s almost like a threaded discussion on a bulletin board website. For me, it’s a great tool to hear replies from others in response to a specific discussion starter.
Our school purchased LoTI reporting for the 2007-2008 school year and I have been looking for resources and fellow teachers who have made use of the LoTI tools. In one conversation, I found 4 resources who I can turn to when I have questions. Plus as a result, I had the opportunity to begin a conversation with new plurker Dean Mantz (dmantz7 on Plurk) about LoTI and 8th grade Tech Assessment that never would have happened with Twitter. So that’s point 1 I’d like to make about Plurk. You’ll find deeper discussions about a single topic than Twitter can support. Plus, because Plurk reminds you to check out new replies through a small link at the bottom left of the screen to “View New Responses”, you’ll know you won’t miss out on the good stuff when you go away for a while and come back.
I guess that’s the one thing that’s always bothered me about Twitter. It’s easy to post a comment, link, quote or opinion, but not easy to get into a conversation about it other than one on one with the original Tweeter. Plurk invites everyone to ask questions and add to the conversation - and even lets you see the replies of those you don’t follow. There’s no getting away from the people here - everyone in your network and those in the network of your friends are given equal access to the full conversation, which I think is a much more democratic way to build a discussion. Pontificating without conversation isn’t going to work here; I’d guess that those who like to have lots of others listen while not interacting won’t much like Plurk…
Point 2 - Plurk’s Karma is gonna get you!
When you first join Plurk, the biggest thing you’ll notice is that everyone is a bit obsessed about their Karma. It’s kinda like the badge of honor people feel when they have lots of followers in Twitter. However, I’m finally starting to get the whole Karma concept and actually like what it supports.
In Twitter, following few while being followed by many seems to be the goal. Twitter seems to promote the thought that if you are important, you’ll have hundreds (thousands!) of people hanging on your every tweet while you only listen to the few tweets from people who are more respected than you. I’ve never gotten this part, but see it in action with lots of people I follow. I pretty much follow anyone in Twitter who follows me; as long as they are related to education and keep their posts “clean” (nothing like showing off Twitter to your principal just as a choice 4 letter word comes across the network…). I started Twitter by following only those I knew personally to keep up with their personal and professional life and only recently branched out to following those who I respect in the EdTech circle. However, in terms of Twitter, I’m probably not seen as a “power user” because my follower-followee ratio is pretty much 1:1.
Twitter also promotes posting of the basic everyday happenings in your life. “What are you doing today?” means I’ll hear about your new blog post as well as your broken A/C, your sick kid, and your dinner plans. Works great if I know the person personally, (and even led to an interesting meeting in the Atlanta airport with several friends who Twitter and happened to be there at the same time!) but for EdTech contacts I don’t know personally, I’m not sure I need that much info.
In Plurk, Karma helps change that conversation in a way that I like. How does Karma do that? By encouraging you to have deep discussions; to follow and be followed by only those with whom you will actively communicate. Karma encourages good interactions - connect with a smaller number of quality friends who will read and reply to your posts, keep it interesting and “respond-able,” respond with quality comments to those you follow, and you will be rewarded with Karma points.
Trying to build a huge following by risking friendship invites on people you don’t know well, posting plurks that don’t invite conversation, becoming unpopular and losing friends by plurking information no one cares about (yes, that’s a little harsh, but it’s the plurk way…), plurking inconsistently by going days or weeks between updates and plurking too much by writing about every detail in your life will cause you to lose Karma points.
Funny thing is, this is pretty much the same technique classroom teachers have used for decades - desired behavior results in positive consequences while unsocial behavior results in negative consequences. You can choose to ignore the Karma (it’s hard) but you can’t ignore the type of interaction it promotes - it’s what we as educators have always wanted.
Point 3 - Plurk takes time to understand and grow
I’ve seen lots of people come into Plurk in the last few days, post a couple of comments, and then leave. If you are truly interested in giving Plurk a try, you’ll have to be willing to invest some initial time into building a network and getting used to the interface. Now that I’ve been immersed heavily for several days, I can say I truly prefer it to Twitter but I didn’t feel that way at the start. First, Plurk’s interface takes getting used to. Liz Davis (lizbdavis on plurk) created an excellent intro to Plurk that’s worth watching to get the basics, but really, you have to be willing to jump in and stick with it for a while before it makes sense. Here’s what I’ve learned:
Before accepting friend invites or inviting someone to be your friend, check out their profile and take the time to watch their timeline for a few days. If you like what they say, but aren’t sure you have enough in common to become mutual friends, add yourself as their fan. If they notice you, they can add you as a friend, or you can continue to follow until you’ve had enough mutual conversations to feel connected. It’s good for Karma (more about this below above) and it keeps you from getting overwhelmed with too many people. Remember, Plurk is about quality rather than quantity!
Update your profile so others know something about you. Again, it’s a Karma boost and it allows others to decide if they have something in common with you.
Use the Mute function on conversations you don’t care about so that the quality stuff is easy to find. You’ll receive a little update in the lower left every time someone leaves a new reply or adds a new plurk. It can get busy and you’ll quickly become overwhelmed if you don’t manage your timeline wisely. If a conversation doesn’t interest you, use the Mute function to remove it from your updates notice. I do this often after the first couple of Good Mornings and Good Nights so I don’t feel like I’m back in the Walton house… (Good night, JohnBoy; nite, Mary Ellen….) When people first join, the conversations are light, but we’re quickly getting past the fluff to the real content potential.
The biggest thing I’ve learned: Plurk isn’t about “What are you doing today?”, instead it’s about “What do you want to discuss today?”
Here are some thoughts that have surfaced recently:
Today, I’ve spent a great deal of time exploring with an interesting social networking tool called Plurk and joining in conversations with other educators who share my enthusiasm for Web 2.0 tools. If you haven’t checked out Plurk, it’s an interesting twist on microblogging with user comments posted in a timeline style.
Rather than have comments and replies show up in a linear fashion, they are “threaded” beneath the original comment:
Needless to say , it takes a little getting used to…
I’ve become a big fan of Twitter and how it can help connect teachers with others outside the walls of their classroom and see the same potential for Plurk. In fact, there are so many ways for teachers to build personal learning networks (PLNs), that the hardest part is deciding just how deep you want to dive in!
The collaborating is easy during the summer months, when most teachers use their own internet connection and home computer to spend time honing their skills and strategies for the next school year, but I wonder what will happen come fall when the classroom doors close and district networks block so many of these tools. It seems a shame to me that teachers aren’t allowed to take full advantage of their PLN when they need it most for just in time help. I feel so fortunate to be part of a very progressive school where the philosophy is to block only that which is dangerous or inappropriate and to teach students and teachers to use tools appropriately. I know too that many don’t share my good fortune.
But, lately, I’ve been noticing another trend during trainings with other districts- the number of teachers (and increasingly students) who have access to web enabled devices like the iPhone where the school network can be entirely bypassed to get to the data you need regardless of district filtering policies. It seems that it’s going to be more and more difficult to solve the problem of inappropriate use by simply hoping that blocking sites will keep kids and teachers in the school-sanctioned sandbox. If districts continue to think we don’t need to teach students (and teachers) how to use these tools because they can’t get to them at school, I’m afraid they’re going to be in for a rude awakening.
There’s an iPhone-sized crack in the walls of the classroom…and the learning is pouring in…
Fellow EdTech blogger and twitter-er Skip Zalneraitis sent the following tweet my way today:
Never one to back down from a challenge, I’m officially throwing my hat into the ring with this post. What’s the challenge, you ask? I’ll let Clif Mim’s original post give you the details:
Directions
Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s technical skills, work on that advanced degree or certification, pick up a new hobby, and finish many of the other items on our ever-growing To Do Lists. Let’s make Summer 2008 a time when we actually get to accomplish a few of those things and enjoy the thrill of marking them off our lists.
The Rules
Pick 3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/01/08).
Post the above directions along with your 3 goals on your blog.
Title your post Professional Development Meme and link back/trackback to http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/353.
Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme.
Tag 8 others to participate in the meme.
Achieve your goals and “develop professionally.”
Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September. My Goals
Learn how to be a better blogger. In my first post, I admitted that I was jumping in before I really knew what I was doing and now’s the time to figure it all out. So, by the end of the summer, I pinkie swear that I will really know what it means to do a trackback and how to use widgets and manage my blog. Plus, I promise to leave comments on blog posts I read and respect like these. And I’ll even promise to take all those tiny slips of paper that clutter my desk and nightstand with ideas I have when there’s no time to write and actually put some of them them into a post.
Explore interesting tools like Second Life and Diigo and how they can be used as tools for virtual learning and collaboration. I usually am willing to give any new tool a try and can see the big picture, but so far Second Life isn’t one that I “get” in terms of education. Diigo is one I’m very interested in, especially as a potential tool for our AP Literature classes to use for “virtual annotation” of public domain books they read that are online. By the end of the summer I want to have a good handle on Diigo and at least know how to get around in SL without running into walls…
Submit proposals for presenting at FETC. Anyone out there interested in putting together a preso on Personal Learning Networks?
I feel a little like I’m casting pebbles out into the calm waters and waiting to see how far the ripples reach. Here’s hoping that the ripples reach ’round the world.
This week, I spent some time exploring Acceptable Use Policies from schools around the country and found that an alarming number of them were somewhere between excessively prohibitive and just plain silly. In a world where technology has become a part of virtually every thing we do, it seems almost absurd to still think of technology use policies as separate from the everyday policies that govern behavior and learning activities. If something is wrong; it’s wrong regardless of the tool we use to carry out the act.
So, it got me to thinking…what if we carried the theme of creating a separate set of rules for other essential learning tools…
Paper Acceptable Use Policy
This acceptable use policy sets forth the policies that govern the use of PAPER by students in the Imaginary School District. Imaginary School District’s PAPER resources, including copy, lined, and construction PAPER are provided for educational purposes. Compliance with the following policies is required in order for users to have continued access to the school’s PAPER resources.
1. Users shall not use PAPER to share or access confidential information. This includes:
using PAPER to knowingly distribute passwords;
opening or accessing PAPER owned by others which may be stored in binders, folders or files even when these files are not protected by filing cabinets or diary locks;
knowingly allowing others to access private PAPER files without reporting it to a teacher or administrator.
2. Users shall respect the intellectual property of others.
Using PAPER to copy or plagiarize the works of others is considered a serious violation of this PAPER policy and may result in penalties, restrictions or fines.
While PAPER copiers are made available for instructional purposes, they may not be used as a tool to violate copyright law.
3. Users shall not use PAPER in ways that show disregard for common conventions of behavior.
PAPER shall only be used to communicate messages that show respect for the recipient.
Using PAPER to access or distribute material that may be considered profane, threatening or discriminatory is not allowed.
In the event that PAPER materials are used to inadvertently access materials that are obscene, pornographic or otherwise inappropriate, the user must immediately inform a teacher of the incident to avoid possible consequences.
Violation of these provisions will result in penalties which may include restriction or removal of a user’s right to use PAPER for a period of up to 9 weeks. It should be noted that both administrators and teachers have the right to monitor and review students’ use of PAPER resources during the instructional day in order to ensure their proper use and may be required to share their findings with law enforcement officials if evidence of criminal PAPER use is found.
So, what are your thoughts? Are AUPs necessary or can we begin to see technology as just another instructional tool that carries the same rights and consequences as every other tool we use in the classroom?
Happy Valentine’s Day! In honor of the day, I thought I’d share some of the things I love on the Internet…especially the two sites that I can’t live without.Thought #1 - Customizing the web with iGoogleiGoogle (http://google.com/ig) is a customizable homepage for your web browser. In addition to adding links to your most commonly used web pages, today’s news, and world maps, you can find tons of content that relates to your subject area. Now, there’s something new awaiting you every time you open your browser! I have two tabs set on my iGoogle Account, one for stuff I use often (like my GoogleDocs, Email, PCHS web links, and a Weather Radar widget) and another with education resources (like Today in History, Art of the Day, Word of the Day and more)…Thought #2 - Bookmarks are Del.icio.usThis is a site we introduced during the summer institute, but it’s one I truly can’t live without. Del.icio.us allows you to store all your web bookmarks online and to share them with others. The best part is being able to “tag” each bookmark with multiple keywords so they’re easy to find. I have over 1000 bookmarks that I share online - you can bet that when I email you a link, I’ve also usually added it to my Del.icio.us account. I also love being able to view the bookmarks of my network of friends and fellow teachers - under the “My Network” Link I can access the links of 19 of my buddies, while 30 people are following my links….pretty cool! You can check out my Del.icio.us at http://del.icio.us/miloboThought #3 - Just because I like youIf you need a pick-me-up….if you need something to make you smile….here’s the site for you..http://www.chriscummins.com/like/Until next time, think happy thoughts!
It’s been almost a month since Pensacola Catholic HS made our announcement about the upcoming 1:1 rollout (time flies, doesn’t it!?) and it’s got lots of our teachers thinking about next year. What a blessing it is to have an entire semester to prepare and get ready for what will be an exciting time next fall! Speaking of the rollout….
One thought that’s been rolling around in my head came from a question posed by one of the reporters on campus during our freshmen parent laptop meeting - she asked “Now that every student will have a computer, how will you make sure that students aren’t just copying information from a web page, pasting it into a document and calling it their own?” Wow….what a question… Of course, we have Turn It In on campus to help catch plagiarism, but all that will really do is keep the blatant copy/pasters at bay. It doesn’t really stop what I’ve witnessed in every school I’ve ever worked in - students who read a paragraph from a source, then rewrite sentence by sentence so the words are different but the ideas are still not truly their own.
So the question is, how do you ensure that students are truly taking their writing to a new level? How do you make sure that instead of just participating in low-level recall, students are moving on to the higher levels of analysis and reasoning that we want them to reach? One way is to rethink how you pose your writing topics. Here are some ideas and examples:
Thought #1 Write a letter
Instead of asking students to write a report on a topic, have them defend their topic in a letter or proposal to an organization. For example, instead of writing a report on global warming, ask them to write a letter to their congressman explaining why global warming should be a priority in government policy.
Thought #2 Write in first person
Have students tell the story of your topic as a person who was directly involved. In Literature, ask students to tell the story of a significant event in a novel from the perspective of an eyewitness.
Thought #3 Narrow and rate
This works well with broad topics. Ask students to select a small number of events that are most important to their topic and justify their choices. For example, in American History, ask students to select the 4 most important ideas or events that led to the passage of a particular amendment.
Thought #4 Ask What if
Ask students to explain the significance of a topic by asking what would be different if it never happened. In Religion, a good example would be “How would the world be different if Martin Luther had followed his first calling and become a lawyer instead of a monk?”
What other ideas do you use to take your writing to the next level? I’d love to hear them!
This week, I thought I’d share a couple of tools to assist as you integrate reading into the curriculum (and to help you get started on your own reading list!)
Thought #1 - Reading and Readability
When working with reading material for students, it’s often tough to decide if the material is a match for their reading level. If the reading level is too tough, they’ll not be able to understand the content. On the flip side, if it’s too easy you’ll wonder if it’s challenging enough for them. With textbooks, you can be reasonably sure that the reading level is appropriate for the level of the course you are teaching, but with websites that’s not always the case. However, there are tools on the web to help!
JuicyStudio’s Readability test (http://juicystudio.com/services/readability.php) is the tops! Enter a website’s URL and almost instantly, you’ll be able to get statistics on the number of words per sentence, average number of syllables per word as well as three different Readability Indices:
In addition, their site gives the average readability level of several types of print material and gives explanations of how Readability levels are calculated. While their site is really geared toward helping web designers tweak their sites, they’ve created a tool that any teacher can make use of well!
Thought #2 - Reading and Connections
Every Christmas, each of my teenage Nieces and Nephews can expect a book and bookmark as a Christmas gift from their favorite aunt….
While the bookmarks (which happen to be Giftcards for iTunes) are probably their favorite part of the gift, I’m happy to say that all of them are also avid readers. During the year, whenever I chat with them, we talk about the books they’ve read and liked during the year. For example, this year, one of my Nieces raved about Lois Lowrey’s book, Gossamer, so for Christmas I’d like to get her a book that’s similar in nature.
By going to the site What Should I Read Next (http://www.whatshouldireadnext.com/) and entering the book’s title or author, I can quickly get a list of 10 other books that she might like. There are also links to the books in Amazon so I can quickly read a review to see if the book I select sounds like a good match. If you’re a book lover like me, it’s a great tool to expand your own reading list too!
Another interesting site to try is Whichbook. Instead of entering the name of a book or author you like, you instead use sliders to select the style of book you think you’d like to read. Want a book that’s a little sad, very unusual but has an optomistic twist? Take a look at the book recommendations from WhichBook. Chances are you’ll come up with a list of books that aren’t on your usual list - the site is UK based, so the suggestions you see aren’t the same ones you keep hearing hyped on other reading lists.
I arrived at NECC yesterday morning and can’t wait to see what’s in store for today. Looking at the final program, it seems as though Web 2.0 is the big topic this year and rightly so - there are so many great tools on the web not that it’s impossible not to think that the predictions are coming true - the web is becoming the next platform choice for many applications. I’ve begun exploring and sharing my favorite tools with my faculty and am looking forward to seeing how others use these tools in their classrooms while I’m here at NECC.
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