Consequently, content materials may include various combinations of text, images, animations, games, simulations, audio, video, websites and other supplements. Participants can work at locations and times that are convenient for them and best of all the content can be customized to the knowledge and experience of the learner. All this adds up to participants getting personalized, on-demand and rapid (e)learning. It’s a different and more effective way of teaching the ABCs. Clearly, Web 2.0 is DISRUPTIVE to traditional education.

Do you like to teach-learn both formally and informally? I do. Then, take TIME to EXPLORE, DISCOVER, find PURPOSE and develop a PLAN for your teaching-learning in the 21st Century. You can decide (or not) to follow one or more of the following suggestions to be more connected (Connectivism) and better at communicating and contibuting (Constructivism). This is how I got started and grew as a result of learning from others. To manage the massive amount of information and not get overwhelmed, I recommend that you have a PURPOSE and PLAN for what you decide to do. On the other hand, you just might want to experiment until you do find a purpose and plan that suits you, your time and interest. Perhaps you won’t and that’s OK. The point is to explore, try and learn. So, CONNECT and CONTRIBUTE using any one or more of these baker’s dozen suggestions as appropriate to your teaching-learning.

• Do a search on a topic of interest using Google; select a topic of interest to you professionally, e.g., education. Look at the first 10 results and see if you think they represent your topic well. With Google you can rearrange the items in a priority that suits you and your specific interests. See if your work or work you are interested in is well-represented there. If not, get STARTED by exploring the following:
  • Connect with a person using e-Mail and/or text message (IM) a friend/colleague about what you are doing, something you’ve read or what you are thinking about. AIM, Skype and/or WIM are easy to use “presence” software for this purpose.
  • Start using social bookmarking and tagging with Delicious or Diigo to keep track and share material you find relevant.
  • Look into using a RSS reader such as Google Reader to track and read material you find relevant. But, first take a tour to see what it is all about.
  • Learn how information spreads by posting an article you like or wrote to digg, reddit, StumbleUpon, etc. You can use Ping.fm or HelloTxt to manage/update your status simultaneously on your social networks.
  • View or post a picture to Flickr or a video to YouTube. If you aren’t ready to post, then participate by commenting on or voting on some.
  • Get involved with social networks and develop your own personal and professional learning network environment (PLN/PLE), e.g., LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook, MySpace, etc. Create a profile, including a picture and invite some colleagues. If you search, you’ll find many of them already there. You can connect to me by searching wgraziadei.
  • Participate in microblogging by joining Plurk, Twitter, Seesmic, Utterli and/or Yammer. Explore text-, audio-, and/or video-based micro-blogging to determine if it fits your style of connectivity and communication. Find some colleagues who are already there and ask them to be friends. If they are not there invite them. Try following me at wgraziadei.
  • Read and explore a few blogs to get a sense of what they are about and how involved they can be. Then try your hand at creating a blog if you have the desire and can commit to the time involved. I recommend that you investigate using Blogspot or WordPress or Edublogs.
  • Join and/or create a social community using Ning and set up an online community that revolves around your interests or activities, e.g., Education, Learning Town, Classroom 2.0, T-L Community, Pedagogy, Library and/or online conferences/unconferences such as Trends in Learning/Work Literacy/Spaces. First search to see what else is there. If you find some, check to see how many members they have and the date of the latest site activity.
  • Use a Wiki to collaborate: Try Wikipedia Wikipedia, pbWiki, WikiSpaces, etc. Search, read, join and enhance it. If there isn’t one there, create it. See who else is on it.
  • Join, create, share and learn in an asynchronous classroom using commercial and open source LMS/LCMS such as edu20, Edmodo, Studeous, Moodle, etc.
  • Join create, share and learn in a synchronous virtual classroom, office, or conference. Share and learn LIVE in Elluminate, WiZiQ, ooVoo Video Conference Room, Ustream and/or Mogulus.

  eLCS – TLT Mogulus Broadcast TV

  

  Teaching-Learning & Technology Broadcast TV

What word(s) would you add to the above Wordle representing 21st Century Teaching-Learning environments?

GO and DISRUPT your LEARNING and traditional EDUCATION!

CAUTION! If you don’t like acronyms, skip this paragraph. I just LOVE (Learning, Open, Visual, Experience) to LEARN (Look, Engage, Analyze, Reflect, New – OK your turn… can you come up with a better one for this?). Acronyms help me to remember and reflect on key points in my thinking as I teach-learn. The key to e-learning becoming learning can be represented by a discovery pathway I follow in my continuous (now grey) learning journey; I call it Q-RADAR; namely, Query, Research, Analyze, Develop, Assess, Reflect. The operative word (yes, just one more) is QUERY – Question, Understand, Evaluate, Respond, Yearn! I know that many of you are not a fan of acronyms; but, the point is that it works for me and my framework. Enough is enough; I’ll stop with the acronyms. Please don’t throw any tomatoes.

To understand where I am coming from in my teaching-learning with technology, think about Connectivism and Constructivism in education as explained in this video piece entitled, The Networked Student.

To close, we might ask, “Is there room in the 21st century student network for a teacher and teaching anymore?” Will the teacher become a technician? I say NO! The role of a teacher is important in not teaching WHAT we know but HOW we came to know WHAT we know and WHY through listening, guiding and discovery. Today, I strongly believe that learning is an informal global and social e-process in addition to the formal face-to-face (F2F) classroom, seminar and conference experiences. The exciting part is that these informal and formal empowers all of us to move rapidly from a knowledgeable to knowledge-able state of mind and presence. A good teacher knows how to ask the right question and not just give the right anwser. Indeed, there is a right time and right place for everything. Listening and collaborating are key. A teacher today needs to be a practitioner, resource, guide, coach, mentor, role model, innovator and pioneer who is able and comfortable to say, be that F2F or digital, “I don’t know; but, let’s go discover and learn together.”

A great big GRAZIA to all my PLE/PLN friends who have CONNECTED and helped me CONSTRUCT these teaching-learning with technology thoughts. I can categorically state that I didn’t learn any of this from scratch. I always try to relate my experiences and ideas to what I learn from others in order to construct a teaching-learning framework that works for me. Everyday YOU help me embed my ideas in your ideas. For this, I am deeply indebted to the e-world spirit of socialism!

Consequently, I can’t close without asking, “What are your thoughts, opinions and/or suggestions about any or all of this?”

This is what my current Twitter followers (526) mosaic collage looks like in a typical 500 pixel wide blog post. Thank you to all my Twitterdom friends for inspiring and teaching me EVERYDAY the ways of TODAY and for helping me move from Web 2.0 and Beyond KNOWLEDGEABLE to Web 2.0 and Beyond KNOWLEDGE-ABLE.

Over Thanksgiving it felt real good to finally let my karma on Plurk slide from the so-called Nirvana of 81+ to below 77, no Facebook, LinkedIn, tweets, utters, etc. It felt good; I think this was a wake-up call for me.

…more over at Plurk, Twitwall and Utterli.

Happy THANKSgiving holiday to ALL!

word cloud image created with wordle

Teaching-Learning the Alphabet TODAY

I prefer to use Google Reader as an RSS/Aggregator because it is easy to setup and use and gives me access to many other useful tools from my access point to … calendar, iGoogle, documents, maps, photos, and much more. Here’s a specific example that makes this point.

Recently, I created two public Google Docs spreadsheet databases; this was done easily while reading a blog about Twitter for Educators using Google Reader from one of my PLN friends (Liz Davis, Educators on Twitter at http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=pM_ZE5BS0SgqDabnhl8Z2aA&hl=en”). It was easy to set about doing by simply clicking on Google Docs in my top menu.

Like Liz I had seen several lists of educators on Twitter; but, I had not seen any for Plurk and Utterli though I had recently developed Wikis for Plurk and Utterli that organizes by subject area. Liz’s post inspired me to learn Google Docs spreadsheet by creating (I learn much better by DOING!) two Google Doc spreadsheet lists, one for Plurk and one for Utterli. These can be sorted across different criteria like Plurk, Twitter, Utterli,Facebook, City, State, Country, Role, Subject or Grade Level. The process I follwed was to first create a Google form for educators to fill out and then I made the corresponding spreadsheets public so that anyone can view and sort.

You can complete the form and add yourself to the list if appropriate and/or view and sort by clicking on the links below and if appropriate.

Educators on Plurk Google Docs form at http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p-lJl9dLLkI8dMjHNHWdsIw …a searchable and sortable list of Educators on Plurk to view/sort at http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p-lJl9dLLkI8dMjHNHWdsIw&hl=en

Educators on Utterli Google Docs form at http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?key=p-lJl9dLLkI_EpZKmqmTDOQ …a searchable and sortable list of Educators on Utterli to view/sort at http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=p-lJl9dLLkI_EpZKmqmTDOQ&hl=en

What RSS/Aggregator do you use and why? Do you incorporate an RSS/Aggregator into you Pedagogy? If so, how? If not, why not?

Join plurk4educators wiki – Are you looking for someone on Plurk that is an educator (K-12 & HigherEd) in the same area as you? Check out the list and add your Plurk anchor name/link,e.g., wgraziadei – with a brief description to the list too! Also, you may add your anchor name/link/description under as many categories as are appropriate. Feel free to add pages about how you use Plurk in your Personal/Professional Learning Networks (PLNs). Ciao, Bill G…

]]> http://wgraziadei.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/welcome-to-plurk4educators-wiki/feed/ 0 Dr. G http://wgraziadei.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/welcome-to-utterli4educators-wiki/ http://wgraziadei.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/welcome-to-utterli4educators-wiki/#comments Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:10:19 +0000 wgraziadei http://wgraziadei.wordpress.com/?p=167 ]]> Welcome to utterli4educators wiki at http:utterli4educators.pbwiki.com/!

Join utterli4educators wiki – Are you looking for someone on Utterli that is an educator (K-12 & HigherEd) in the same area as you? Check out the list of and add your Utterli anchor name/link,e.g., wgraziadei – with a brief description to the list too! Also, you may add your anchor name/link/description under as many categories as are appropriate. Feel free to add pages about how you use Utterli in your Personal/Professional Learning Networks (PLNs). Ciao, Bill G…

]]> http://wgraziadei.wordpress.com/2008/10/16/welcome-to-utterli4educators-wiki/feed/ 0 Dr. G http://wgraziadei.wordpress.com/2008/10/15/hands-on-labs-for-on-line-science/ http://wgraziadei.wordpress.com/2008/10/15/hands-on-labs-for-on-line-science/#comments Wed, 15 Oct 2008 07:03:30 +0000 wgraziadei http://wgraziadei.wordpress.com/?p=161 ]]> Hands-On Labs for On-Line Science… is it possible to have high quality and safe labs for online courses such as anatomy and physiology, biology, chemistry, geology and physics courses? See http://www.athomescience.com/index.htm. Also a webinar entitled, Effectively Teaching Online Biology with a Hands-On Lab Component, is scheduled for November 6, 2008 1:00 – 2:00 PM EST. See http://www.athomescience.com/Webinar11062008.htm.

Let’s attend the session and then discuss the question of whether it is possible to have high quality and safe labs for online science courses. Has anyone used LabPaq by Hands-On Labs, Inc? If so, do you have an opinion about the product(s)?

Ciao, Bill G…

P.S. You can also go over to http://utterli.com/LifeSciences, http://utterli.com/K12, http://utterli.com/HigherEd or http://utterli.com/K12HigherEd to post an audio or video blog about this.

The nice thing about Utterli is that it is not limited by 140 characters and includes audio, pics and/or video. So, it gives options to users as to how they wish to microblog. Also, groups can be created as private or public with open or closed membership; visibility is public or group only.

Join Web20PLN, a discussion group about Web 2.0 Tools and your Personal/Professional Learning Networks in education and business environments.

Join SNWeb20, a discussion group for learning professionals to learn, share and collaborate about social networking Web 2.0 tools and their utility in business and education environments.

Join LifeSciences, a discussion group about teaching-learning life sciences online, blended and/or face-to-face.

Join HigherEd, a discussion group for HigherEd faculty and staff centering around pedagogy in teaching-learning environments.

Join K12, a discussion group for K-12 faculty and staff centering around pedagogy in teaching-learning environments.

Join K12HigherEd, a discussion group for both K-12 & HigherEd faculty and staff centering around pedagogy in teaching-learning environments.

Join eLearning20, a private discussion group for business and education learning professionals to help their organizations meet their asynchronous, synchronous and Web 2.0 technology needs through sharing and collaboration.

Join eLibrary20, a private discussion group for faculty, staff and librarians to discuss the nature of the next generation library and librarian through sharing and collaboration.

I hope to see you over there and, of course, on Plurk and Twitter! Ciao, Bill G…