The Coalition of Lighthouse Schools

Online presentation

Bernie Dodge, PhD – San Diego State University

• Blogging
• Wikis
• Podcasting
• Google Earth

New tools for a new paradigm. Two-way web. User-created content. Web 2.0.

Technolust – the need for the very latest of whatever you currently use. (All of us here are guilty.)

Geocaching, Google Earth, GPS, etc.

• Google Earth Plug-ins – earthquakes, airline flights (arrival into LAX)
• Flickrmap – social software, tagged photos w/ lat. & long.
• Mapbuilder – a way to create your own “Google map”
• MacGPS Pro – tracks your speed, altitude, etc.

Affordances – What are these good for?

• Visualization
• Spatial Reasoning
• Linking Physical world with Cyberspace

Designs for Teaching with Geotools

• Factual – Where’s Waldo
• Inquiry – Where do cities happen? Why? Where do they build restaurants? Where do earthquakes happen? Where does a whale move?
• Concreteizing/Visualizing – take a novel and map the path of the protagonist. Design a tour.

Blogs

Numbers are quickly increasing. Around 28 mil. Check out Blogmeister . Allows teachers control and enables students to write and engage in a dialogue.

Utilize this to make history come alive by recreating historical journals.

Teacher’s using blogs as a place for professional reflection. Links point to interesting material. Commenting binds us together in a unique way.

Affordances

• Easy publishing
• Self-expression
• Personality
• Audience
• Peer feedback
• Community of learners
• Chronology
• Reflection

Designs for Teaching with Blogs

• Learning Journals
• Collaboration with distant classrooms
• Role plays, solo and multi-role

Podcasting

Reaching remote parts of the world. Not just for developed countries. Stanford on iTunes. Learn Out Loud for educational podcasts.
mr. mayo

Affordances

• Self-expression
• Collaboration
• Personality
• Sense of audience
• An actual audience
• Ubiquitous learning

Designs for Teaching with Podcasts

• Magazine-style
• Interview with an expert
• Interviews on a topic
• Re-enactment
• Soundscapes

Wikis

Wikipedia caused the explosion of wikis. This generation looks to Wikipedia like we did to Encyclopedia Brittanica.

Danger is that it opens itself up to controversy.

Blogs vs. Wikis

Uses: micropedia – take a small strand and focus on it. Collection of information becomes very comprehensive.

Collaborative writing using a wiki.

Wikispaces.com – doesn’t work with Safari
PBwiki – works w/ Safari and easy to use

Affordances

• Easy publishing
• Collaboration
• Peer feedback
• Editing/

Designs for Teaching with Wikis

• Collaborative documents
• Micropedias
• Ant farm – story with no beginning and no end
• Branching stories/Choose-your-own-adventure
• Exegisis

THIS IS ALL COOL, BUT SO WHAT…

Start at the end and work backwards. What outcome are you looking for? Start there.

Go with the grain of the medium. Choose the one that affords and supports what you are doing.

Imagine your kids in 10 years… you want to give them experiences that will prepare them for what is coming.

What they remember from what you taught them is how to make use of all the knowledge that is at their fingertips!