We started our celebration with a look at a couple of the philosophical touchstones for TTT, mainly World Bridges and the National Writing Project. Jeff Lebow (WB) and Elyse Eidman-Aadahl (NWP) helped us with these starting points.
The goals of Worldbridges are relatively simple and straightforward, as follows, “Our primary goal is to foster understanding and cooperation amongst the citizens of the world. We value civility and respect, open source collaboration, fair distribution of income, and a sense of world identity.” As part of these efforts, Worldbridges seeks to foster positive systemic changes in areas such as education, the environment, and politics. It also supports reliable and fair commerce. And it promotes a “people’s forum” for more civilized discussion of problems, issues, and conflicts that pose significant challenges in united the people of this planet. Values supported by the Worldbridges organization include respect and civility, fair distribution of income, world identity, and open source collaboration.
Jeff Lebow began experimenting with Worldbridges ideas (initially called “World Explorer”) when starting his master’s program in Training and Learning Technologies at the University of New Mexico in 1993 after a year of teaching English in Thailand (Worldbridges, 2007). At that time, Lebow became excited at the possibilities of the convergence of intercultural interaction and collaborative and interactive online technologies. After completing his masters, he returned to Asia—this time Pusan, Korea—where he taught English as a university and began to experiment with online audio and video, which included covering the Nagano Olympics in 1998. After burning out on all his activities and attempting to envision and build a webcasting network his life took a turn, or as he puts it, “I decided to quit my job, shave my head, and go to India for a while to contemplate the next chapter, for me personally and for Worldbridges. After some quality offline time, I decided to give Worldbridges a shot.” In Lebow’s vision for Worldbridges, he sought for it to become a means for using Internet technology for a global webcasting network of people. And it has!
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And here's a paragraph about the National Writing Project's core philosophy by Art Peterson in 2004
The National Writing Project's core philosophy, "teachers teaching teachers," is perhaps most directly expressed in the invitational summer institute's teacher demonstrations. NWP founder Jim Gray writes in Teachers at the Center, his memoir of the writing project beginnings, "The most successful demonstrations communicate not only what the teacher does but also why the teacher thinks this particular practice works. The emphasis upon the why as well as the what is important: it provides a theoretical underpinning and it accents a considered approach to writing beyond mere gimmickry" (143). According to Gray, this demonstration serves as a "trial run" for the workshops future teacher-consultants will present during inservice work in the schools, but it is intended to be much more than a simple demonstration of a strategy or technique. It is intended to be a significant "genre" for the circulation of knowledge about practice.
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Enjoy!
Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.
Paul,
I read about the Youth Voices project at the Digital Is site, and I think it sounds very interesting, like something I would use with my 9th and 11th grade English classes here in Windsor, CO. So, I visited the site and signed up, but it seems like I do not have access to everything. I can only see three of the guides that you use, and the directions for most of the activities seem limited. I enjoyed the free-writing article by Peter Elbow, and I also like the 10 questions activity. I am wondering if there is a description of how teachers use this site somewhere.
Thanks, Tommy Buteau
That’s not all, a couple of days later Tommy wrote:
We couldn't wait to welcome Tommy into our community and to learn more about his work. We were also delighted to welcome Chad Sansing back to TTT. You can see the results of the challenge we threw to him on TTT #256 - Cooperative Catalyst.
On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers, Paul Allison, Susan Ettenheim, and Chris Sloan catch up with two other National Writing Project teachers, Bud Hunt and Gail Desler.
First we talk to Bud about his conversation at this year EduCon 2.3. We encourage you to follow the links at the bottom of this description from the EduCon site (I hope we did our "linktrubition" correctly here!):
Dr. Remix; or how I learned to stop worrying and love citation Browse recordings:livestream.com/educon8 Who: Bud Hunt, St. Vrain Valley School District (CO) and Joe Bires, Haddonfield School District (NJ) Conversation Description:
This presentation is an extension of a Twitter conversation in response to a keynote presentation at ISTE 2010. One presenter felt that he was witnessing an act of plagiarism, while the other felt he was seeing remix in action. Their constructive disagreement is worth further exploration.
Clearly, there are many differing views on the role of proper use of the work of others. What is the place of citation in the work we are doing with students and others? When should you cite? How? What does a digital citation, or "linktribution" as Alan Levine calls it, look like online?
Perhaps you never thought about it or perhaps you never considered the issue in its totality. This discussion will raise your awareness of this issue that fundamentally affects us because ideas are at the core of all of our curricula. Through citation, we ask students to connect ideas together and create new ones, but the issue of citation masks the fundamental question of the relationship between ideas and their creators.
Websites: http://www.budtheteacher.com - http://edtechleadership.com - http://bit.ly/drremix
Next up in the podcast, Gail Desler brings us up to date on here work as a technology integrator in the Elk Grove (CA) Unified School District. Among other things, Gail describes why she loves Audacity so much, and here's some of how she puts it in her wonderful Edublog, BlogWalker:
The appeal of Audacity to students is that they can edit all or just parts of a recording. For the past few months, I’ve had the privilege of observing Teresa Cheung’s 4th graders delve into Audacity to edit their Stories from Heart audio interviews. Once students see how easy it is to zoom in and delete an “er” or “um,” or shorten a pause, or amplify a section that’s too low, or remove background noise, etc., they become active sound editors. I love watching the confidence level of ELLs grow, as they relax, knowing how easy it is to redo words or even a single word until they’re satisfied with the output.
But more importantly, as Teresa’s students listen, for instance, to Chase’s mother explain how she came to be born by a waterfall, or Devina’s grandmother talk about growing up in Berkeley in the ’50s, or Anthony’s mother talk about her childhood days escaping Laos, the students take pride in sharing and preserving family stories, cultures, and languages. As the collection builds, so does the celebration of common threads and diversity in Ms. Cheung’s classroom, along with an appreciation for the power of the human voice.
Finally, Paul, Chris, and Susan mull over some of the changes they are planning for Youth Voices. Within days of this post, Bill Fitzgerald and the other "primates" over at FunnyMonkey will have finished a re-launch of Youth Voices on their new Voice Box installation.
The VoiceBox installation profile is designed to simplify the work of groups looking to create or expand their online presence. Groups who could use this site range from media organizations to not-for-profits to schools to advocacy groups. If an organization wants to build a place for their stakeholders to publish, interact, and get more informed, then VoiceBox could support that work.
We are very excited because we hope this re-launch will allow us to work with more students and teachers at Youth Voices.
We hope you enjoy this podcast. Enjoy peaking into the thoughts and plans of five National Writing Project teachers from across the country.
On this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers,
Paul Allison, Susan Ettenheim, and Chris Sloan catch up with two other
National Writing Project teachers, Bud Hunt and Gail Desler.
First we talk to Bud about his conversation at this year EduCon 2.3.
We encourage you to follow the links at the bottom of this description
from the EduCon site (I hope we did our "linktrubition" correctly here!):
Dr. Remix; or how I learned to stop worrying and love citation Browse recordings:livestream.com/educon8 Who: Bud Hunt, St. Vrain Valley School District (CO) and Joe Bires, Haddonfield School District (NJ) Conversation Description:
This presentation is an extension of a Twitter conversation in
response to a keynote presentation at ISTE 2010. One presenter felt that
he was witnessing an act of plagiarism, while the other felt he was
seeing remix in action. Their constructive disagreement is worth
further exploration.
Clearly, there are many differing views on the role of proper use of the
work of others. What is the place of citation in the work we are doing
with students and others? When should you cite? How? What does a
digital citation, or "linktribution" as Alan Levine calls it, look like
online?
Perhaps you never thought about it or perhaps you never considered
the issue in its totality. This discussion will raise your awareness of
this issue that fundamentally affects us because ideas are at the core
of all of our curricula. Through citation, we ask students to connect
ideas together and create new ones, but the issue of citation masks the
fundamental question of the relationship between ideas and their
creators.
Websites: http://www.budtheteacher.com - http://edtechleadership.com - http://bit.ly/drremix
Next up in the podcast, Gail Desler brings us up to date on here work
as a technology integrator in the Elk Grove (CA) Unified School
District. Among other things, Gail describes why she loves Audacity so
much, and here's some of how she puts it in her wonderful Edublog, BlogWalker:
The appeal of Audacity to students is that they can edit all or just parts of a recording. For the past few months, I’ve had the privilege of observing Teresa Cheung’s
4th graders delve into Audacity to edit their Stories from Heart audio
interviews. Once students see how easy it is to zoom in and delete an
“er” or “um,” or shorten a pause, or amplify a section that’s too low,
or remove background noise, etc., they become active sound editors. I
love watching the confidence level of ELLs grow, as they relax, knowing
how easy it is to redo words or even a single word until they’re
satisfied with the output.
But more importantly, as Teresa’s students listen, for instance, to Chase’s mother explain how she came to be born by a waterfall, or Devina’s grandmother talk about growing up in Berkeley in the ’50s, or Anthony’s mother
talk about her childhood days escaping Laos, the students take pride
in sharing and preserving family stories, cultures, and languages. As
the collection builds, so does the celebration of common threads and
diversity in Ms. Cheung’s classroom, along with an appreciation for the
power of the human voice.
Finally, Paul, Chris, and Susan mull over some of the changes they are planning for Youth Voices.
Within days of this post, Bill Fitzgerald and the other "primates" over
at FunnyMonkey will have finished a re-launch of Youth Voices on their
new Voice Box installation.
The VoiceBox installation profile is designed to
simplify the work of groups looking to create or expand their online
presence. Groups who could use this site range from media organizations
to not-for-profits to schools to advocacy groups. If an organization
wants to build a place for their stakeholders to publish, interact, and
get more informed, then VoiceBox could support that work.
Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.
We are delighted to introduce you to Travis Powell on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers. Travis is a member of the Oregon Writing Project, and he teaches at a unique school that he \co-founded, the Child’s Way Charter School in Oregon.
We met Travis at a gaming workshop at the National Writing Project’s annual meeting in November and at a NWP Maker workshop.
We are delighted to introduce you to Travis Powell on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers. Travis is a member of the Oregon Writing Project, and he teaches at a unique school that he co-founded, the Child’s Way Charter School in Oregon.
We met Travis at a gaming workshop at the National Writing Project’s annual meeting in November and at a NWP Maker workshop.
Here’s what Travis says about his school and his work there:
The charter is in its fifth year of operation. The charter's mission is to create environments that allow the students to explore and discover their strengths and weaknesses in their educational development. We have an emphasis on the implementation of technology. I am a co-founder of the charter and my role was and is the implementation of some of the theories on education put forth by Gardner, Glasser, Dewy, Maslow & Payne ... I serve a low SES population of 24 students ranging in grades from 9th -12th. Each student has a laptop with internet access along with ipad touches on loan form CATE, center for advanced technology in education, out of the University of Oregon.
The ning showcases some of their individual and group projects. In "Problems have Solutions" the students learned what it takes to solve the Cube and then construct a machine to solve the cube. Another project is "Solar Hydrogen" part II.
My goal is to get the students to realize the potential. Be able to read, write, think abstractly (mathematics), apply the scientific method, and communicate effectively at a college level by the time they leave the charter. In tandem, develop a four year plan post high school (two-year, four-year college, vocational, ...) with clear objectives with feedback on accomplishing those steps....
Enjoy!
Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.
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co-founded, the Child’s Way Charter School in Oregon.
