Welcome to WMWP’s Technology Conference
May 11, 2008 — adminWe are glad that you are here and we hope these sessions are much a conversation about the potential of technology across the curriculum as it is a learning experience for you.
Follow these links to bring you to the agenda for each of the three sessions:
- Connecting to the World: Social networking for teachers and students
- Audiocasting in the Classroom
- Digital Storytelling Across the Curriculum
(source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/courosa/344832591/)
And please feel free to visit:
- The Western Massachusetts Writing Project website
- The Western Massachusetts Writing Project newsletter weblog
- The National Writing Project
Thank you for attending!
– The WMWP Technology Team
May 11, 2008 at 11:24 am
Greetings!
If you are visitor from the Web, please feel free to leave comments or suggestions or links/resources here.
Or you can just say “hello” to the workshop.
Please also let us know where you are from in the world.
Thanks for dropping by.
Kevin
May 15, 2008 at 6:30 am
Good Luck Western Mass!
I remember driving up to meet Kevin and Paul Oh for our conference last November, worrying about snow. Now that’s one thing you don’t have to worry about.
You have your passion and your great work to move the group along with you.
They are coming to learn from learners. We are all in this together.
If you can, it would be great to document their reactions as much as you can. Digital recorders around?
I have just included your site on our future SI’08 blog.
Break a leg! Rock the house!
Bonnie Kaplan
Hudson Valley Writing Project
May 15, 2008 at 6:45 am
You’re in for an exciting day! If you’re new to all this Web 2.0 stuff, the best advice I could give you is to start using these tools for your own personal learning first, before bringing them into the classroom. It’s impossible to help kids really learn about blogging until you’ve been through the experience yourself. If you’re going to do podcasting, do one for yourself first. These tools are incredibly powerful for learning, but it definitely helps when we start with using them for our own learning first.
Good luck and have fun!
May 15, 2008 at 1:23 pm
Hello Western Massachusetts from SE Michigan! Here in Michigan my fifth graders have been connecting and collaborating all around the world. We’ve partnered with a classroom in Bucaramanga, Colombia for a podcasting and Skype project all year! We’ve also used wikis and Google Docs to write collaborative stories with partners from all over. The Web 2.0 offers so many rich possibilities for learning! Grab ahold and hang on for the ride of your life! Once you are hooked, you are there for life! My classroom has definitely been a changed environment from years past and has been well worth it! Visit our Global Explorers site at: http://globalexplorers.wikispaces.com
May 15, 2008 at 7:49 pm
Hope you have an excellent conference from Sue Waters, Perth Western Australia.
Michele Martin has definitely given you the best advice if you are new to using these technologies. Focus on learning how to use it for yourself — once you are able to use it for your personal learning then you will soon see how to use with your students.
Don’t stress at not knowing it all — just focus on one step at a time.
May 15, 2008 at 7:53 pm
Greetings from the Redwood Coast of Northern California. Relax and get ready to have FUN: you’re in excellent hands.
I’m still working out the bugs, but you’re welcome to view a wiki project on which my students and I worked this semester:
http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/wikidicii
I am sure you and your students will find many exciting and productive uses for Web 2.0. Tracy
May 15, 2008 at 8:15 pm
I’m so excited for all of you because I know how wonderful technology can be. I’m a long time blogger, and I know there may be times your activity might lull. I do, however, challenge you all to keep it going. The key to this is readership and co-authorship.
I think reading your blog will inspire me to be more diligent with my own site! So thank you for that!
Welcome to the blogosphere, and for those of you returning, welcome back!
Have fun with it! You’re in great hands!
May 15, 2008 at 9:35 pm
A big ol’ Hi, all y’all!” to my friends in the WMWP, from a colleague in the Colorado State University Writing Project here in Fort Collins, Colorado. I hope you have a great time exploring technology and learning and writing with Kevin and each other, particularly as you take a peek at the amazing stuff going on online.
There’s a big world out there - full of constant surprises, opportunities, frustrations and wonders. But the best part is all the truly excellent people you meet along the way - writers and learners and questioners and just really fine and interesting folks who are sometimes our teachers and other times our students and vice versa ad infinitum. We’ve a big responsibility to learn how to navigate that and to share our learning and guidance with our students.
Kevin’s been and will again be my teacher - I hope you’ll be my teachers, too. You can’t be in finer hands. Work hard. Learn lots. Share as much as you can.
May 15, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Hello, Western Mass workshop participants. Be patient and open-minded. I’ve just started using some of the tools you’ll be hearing about soon. Try to make the time to really learn and use these new ideas and tools. They will take you to places you never imagined possible! If you want to see a blog in its infancy go to
http://nwp-ksu.blogspot.com/. We’re taking baby steps, but we’re still getting there!
Ann Thompson - Tech Liaison at NWP-KSU (Kent State)
May 15, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Greetings from the GHAWP - The Greater Houston Area Writing Project.
When use reading to gain knowledge. We write to process that learning. There is no better way excell learners into the thinking process than by using web 2.0 tools. Kevin is a master at exploring the possiblities and you will all be blessed from the time you spend learning with him.
May 15, 2008 at 10:51 pm
Hello Western Mass from Northwest Missouri
Like the others have said, “Have fun yourselves with the technology.” Since Kevin is going to be part of this adventure I am sure it will be great. Last summer PLWP presented a Technology Literacy Open Institute with teachers from multi grade levels and across the curriculum.
Many began fearing the idea of blogging, but you can see the results of our adventure at http://mistyblue.edublogs.org
Have a wonderful gathering of great minds.
Mary in Missouri
May 15, 2008 at 11:30 pm
The sessions sound great and I’m glad you’ll get to do a lot of hands on activities. Michele Martin’s advice about using these web 2.0 tools for your own personal learning first is gold. When I started blogging I had no idea how powerful it was going to be for my own professional development. I am learning so much from so many talented people. Have a great conference, from Claire in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada.
May 16, 2008 at 1:48 am
Hello to all,
Massachusetts is home for me, my family lives on Cape Cod. I’ve been in Oregon for ten years. I hope you discover just how fun learning technology can be.
May 16, 2008 at 3:01 am
Greetings from Chico, California! I know that you will have a great day learning about the many tools available to you. Don’t worry if you feel overwhelmed–it’s completely normal.
If the idea of blogging or podcasting or facebooking or digital storytelling just seems like too much, try Twitter. After all, how hard can it be to type out 140 characters? You can follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pkittle. You won’t find huge insights or abundant profundities, but you will find that it’s fun and can bring you closer to your colleagues.
May 16, 2008 at 4:35 am
Have a great day up there in Western Mass from Kate Foy in Toowoomba Australia.
A couple of other folks (Michele and Sue) have encouraged you to try these tools yourself so you can find out what works for you. You’ll pretty soon get a feel for the whole Web 2.0 adventure and start thinking about how you can use these great tools to get your students up and running headlong into the digital literacy challenges of the 21st century.
So have fun … play!
May 16, 2008 at 5:06 am
Hi, everyone. Greetings from Joe who lives in DC and works in Maryland. Getting started with this can be overwhelming because there are so many choices and so much to learn. I started with one thing that was simple (Nicenet) where my students were able to have discussions with others in our school (with 3,000 students, it’s like a little city) and with students in a school in Germany. As I learned more, I picked things that were most relevant to how I teach and what my students need to learn. This year we’ve been doing lots of collaboration with both Wikispaces and Google Docs. My students publish their writing in a print and online version of an international student newspaper called Silver International. The online version can be found at http://silverinternational.mbhs.edu
May 16, 2008 at 5:47 am
Hello everyone! I am Bill from the Coastal Area Writing Project in South Carolina. I am the new technology liaison for their summer institute at Coastal University in Conway, SC. However, I am not new to CAWP. I can tell that you are in for an exciting adventure. I look forward to checking back to this blog to see what you have learned. Good luck and email me if I can be of any help to you. wcgaskins.59@gmail.com
May 16, 2008 at 6:28 am
Hello, and greetings from the Plymouth Writing Project in New Hampshire. Enjoy your time together, and all of the wonderful things you’ll explore.
May 16, 2008 at 8:30 am
Welcome to the National Writing Project Family from the South Central Kansas Writing Project!
You are in wonderfully clever and talented hands for your conference experience. Kevin is an inspiration and his creativity and love of teaching are contagious. I’m sure at times, all of the information he gives will seem overwhelming. Take each new idea and tuck it away like a grain of sand in an oyster shell. I promise that you will reap pearls of wisdom in the end.
Look forward to the journey!
Tonya Witherspoon
Technology Liaison
South Central Kansas Writing Project
May 16, 2008 at 12:24 pm
Welcome fellow writers,
It is get to see you are taking an interest in learning to blog. I have learned a great deal from other teachers like yourself when I decided to join the writers’ community. The possibilities are endless. I hope you will check out this link and take a look at some of the resources I have collected from other NWP members. http://del.icio.us/artsmartie525/technology
I hope you will check some of the technology and games that I posted.
Have a great day exploring.
Barb
May 16, 2008 at 9:42 pm
Hi!
Welcome to the cyber world of professional bloggers. I know you will enjoy your introduction to the Web 2.0 and social networking tools. It’s a new age of learning and connecting that holds a great deal of potential and exciting possibilities.
I’m not an avid blogger but I do write on the web on occasion. You can check out my blog on Kevin’s Tech Friends Ning site or read what I’ve written on my elgg at http://elgg.educationbridges.net/feliciag/weblog
Enjoy the weekend and write up a storm.
May 17, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Hello from New Jersey. As you listen and work with these new pieces of technology, choose one to try on your own that sounds most interesting and easy to use. When you begin exploring, it will lead you to other things. Don’t be overwhelmed by the options. If you try just one new thing every year, you will gain confidence to try more and more. When you do try a project, take time to reflect on what went well and what you can do better the next time. It’s the process of reflection that helps each new project go smoother.
May 17, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Hi and greetings from Switzerland.
As you can see, internet tools can connect in ways that were unthinkable just a few years ago.
I hope you enjoy your journey to the eduweb and maybe you’ll end up staying!
Illya