The 21st Century Student - networked

How about this view of the 21st century student?



What do you think?



BTW - It is most interesting that this uses the Common Craft method of presentation. Not only did the presenters ask permission of Common Craft to do this but it was granted. Truly a good aspect of the networking opportunities available!

Phishing scams in plain english

In our continuing series on understanding Web 2.0, one of the drawbacks of free and easy email is found with multiple scams. The folks at Common Craft have come up with a video to explain phishing scams. Very well done. Be careful what you click on in email!





Note: For those subscribers to this blog, this is one link that you can trust.

"How Can I Become Part of this ReadWriteWeb Revolution?"

In our continuing series on Web 2.0, the K12 Online Conference is underway. The video clip here is one of the two keynote addresses that opened the conference. It is being conducted virtually, that is, totally online.

The keynote presenters in this clip are all from Maine. They creatively used Flip cameras to video their conversation to share with the world.

Note: this presentation is geared for teachers and urges them to get involved in the ReadWriteWeb Revolution, but you can put yourself in this position too! How are you going to continue learning to keep up with the changes in this world?

The steps they outline are easy enough to pick up and use. The online tools are mostly free. Digital cameras or camera phones are reasonably priced. The bar for entry is set low. All you need is desire.




Click through to the web site for the conference to find additional information (i.e links) for the tools and articles they referenced.

Enjoy!

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Why put this here?

There is great potential in expanding learning at a very reasonable cost (small dollars if not free) with the Web 2.0 tools. With an economic future like schools in MA in particular have facing them, this is an avenue to consider.

Electing a US President in Plain English

With the November election approaching, it is time to start preparing for it. Let's start with a good explanation of how the electoral college works. This one by the folks at Common Craft is a good, accurate and simple explanation of the electoral college. No chads are left hanging!


Electing a US President in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

Enjoy!

If you are interested in the behind the scenes explanation of how the video was created visit Common Craft here.

Another Social Networking Site - Wicked Local

WICKED LOCAL: Social networking comes to New England sites GateHouse Media New England has entered into an agreement with TownConnect to introduce family-based social networking and a variety of other community-building tools on GateHouse’s 159 Wicked Local town web sites in Massachusetts.

Through the co-branded Wicked Local People sites, residents of the 159 eastern Massachusetts communities served by GateHouse newspapers can participate in a free, secure, private network and easily organize online communities of friends, neighbors and extended families; coordinate schedules; share photos and files; and connect families, friends, and neighbors.

“When we launched the Wicked Local network last fall, we wanted to combine professional journalism, lots of community information, and lots of opportunities for residents to interact with us and with each other,” said Kirk Davis, president of GateHouse Media New England. “Working with TownConnect allows us to take that interaction to the next level - immediately.”

Read the full article in the Franklin Gazette here

If you have followed our web 2.0 series, you should have some idea of what this site can do. I did sign up but don't have the time just now to continue to fill out the info required. There were about 20 or so other Franklin folks to do so when I signed up. It will need to have more to be worthwhile.

Spreading the word

The podcast is now available via iTunes. There is a box on the right column so you can subscribe and listen via your iPod or other MP3 player as well as clicking on the individual links in the posts here at Franklin Matters.

I have created a group in Facebook: "I Believe Franklin (MA) Matters". For those who use Facebook, this will provide an opportunity to spread the word.

Meetup.com

Continuing our series on understanding Web 2.0 tools, the good folks at Common Craft have a new video this time produced specifically for Meetup.com.


What's Meetup? from Meetup HQ on Vimeo.


FYI - there are 6 groups within 5 miles of Franklin and 29 groups within 10 miles. Quite a variety with room for more.

Enjoy!

Mr Winkle wakes up

Another in a series of thought provoking videos on education.



Thanks to Dr. Scott MacLeod for the pointer to this video.

Enjoy!

Social Media in Plain English

The fine folks at Common Craft have done it again. This time with a good explanation of Social Media. Time for ice cream.




What flavor do you like?

Podcasts in plain English

In our continuing series exploring the technology of Web 2.0 and social media, the folks at Common Craft have a new presentation on podcasts.

What is a podcast?

Watch this and find out the basics. Enjoy!






By the way, I will be at PodCamp New York on Saturday. What I learn there, at SOBCon08 and PodCamp Boston 3, you will eventually see the results of.

Google on Privacy

Online privacy is something anyone cruising on the web needs to be aware of. Spend a few minutes to review the video tips that Google has put together.

Twitter - a teaching learning tool

From Nottinghamshire (yes, Robin Hood country) Tom Barrett teaches and writes a blog. This post goes into great detail on how he uses Twitter as a teaching and learning tool.

In my experience, and in the short time that I have used it, Twitter has grown quickly to play a major part in the way that I interact with fellow colleagues and professionals from around the world. In my classroom and with the children I teach it has been an exciting tool to utilise and support learning. However it is one of many tools that we have at our disposal. I do not see it replacing any of the others we use nor do I see the positive impact upon learning being exclusive to Twitter.

Read the full posting here.

Cruise around Tom's site. He has video tutorials. He has some wikis.

Do you twitter?

Did you know? v2.0

This brief (about 8 minutes) video was created in 2006 for an audience of 150 teachers in a Colorado high school. By June 2007, it had already been viewed by over 5 million people.

Did you know?




What can Franklin afford to provide an education for our youth?

Common Craft on Photo Sharing

Continuing the Web 2.0 series on new technologies and how to use them, the wonderful folks at Common Craft have this explanation on photo sharing:





Enjoy!

PS - You may have noticed that most of the photos I post here are from my Flickr account. You can also click through to see the full slide show of all my Franklin photos by clicking on any one of the photos. I also use a little widget in the right column to scroll through the photo collection.

Common Craft explains Twitter

As part of the continuing series on Web 2.0, the tools and how they are used, here is a brief explanation of Twitter from the wonderful folks at Common Craft:




Do you Twitter?

You can find my twitters under the user name of "shersteve".

Digital Learning - What do we want for Franklin?

As we gear up for another discussion on grim finances and the sections of the taxpayers appear to be pitted against one another in a case of the "haves" vs. the "have-nots", the "fors" vs. the "against", I suggest we step back and discuss our priorities.

How do we enable an appropriate education for our children's digital future?

Spend four minutes of your time to view this:



This is a more pointed, that is education focused, version of the Web 2.0 explained that I shared here earlier.


What do we want for our Franklin students?


The "we" is deliberate. We are all in this together. Together we can discuss and decide.

wikis in Plain English

Continuing our series on web 2.0 tools, we have this one from the folks at Common Craft on wikis. The most common wiki is wikipedia which has more entries and is more accurately updated than a printed encyclopedia.





How could Franklin use a wiki? If we created our own, we could do any number of things with it.

You could create an account on wikipedia and edit the entry for Franklin, MA.

RSS in Plain English - Common Craft

I encourage you to view the brief video explaining "RSS in Plain English" by the wonderful folks at Common Craft. Click on the link here.

The video was created in April 2007 and is still very much accurate. I had used Bloglines as my reader of choice. I had started playing with the Google reader but never really got it set up. As I have little time to play, I haven't messed too much with this. Bloglines works very nicely. I did play with Google Reader and it gradually took over as it added more features so that I could send an item to a blog, to someone else via email, or to Twitter.

You can subscribe to this site via RSS. The orange button is on the right column below my Town Common Gazebo photo.

You can also subscribe to this site to receive updates via email. There are options to set to receive an email each time something is posted or to receive an email once a day. You can choose the frequency for what works for you.

Enjoy!

Updated 10/20/10

Blogs in plain English (video)

as part of a series on Web 2.0 technologies, here is an explanation of blogs by the folks at Common Craft:

The Web 2.0 thing explained (video)

I posted this to the Joyful Jubilant Learning blog last year when I found it. It is still relevant today. Dr Michael Wesch prepared this. It moves quickly but can be replayed if you need to catch specific parts again.