The biggest snow storm of the 2013-2014 winter season is upon us! Since my husband is a 'prepper,' I have been prepared for days...actually months...for this storm. No need for a grocery run or a stop at Home Depot for de-icers or generators (we have four). Rather, I spent my Tuesday wondering what to do about face to face ITS class on Wednesday. Reports indicated snow would most likely start around 7 or 8pm in our area so it was possible to still have class for a few hours. I knew that a decision for Mason to cancel classes was probably not likely or would happen after ITSers had left to come to Mason in Loudoun. And I had been down this road before (or actually NOT down the road, but stuck in my car) in 2011 Carmaggedon. Forecasting weather is difficult in this area as is any predication about the traffic. Is it worth the worry about storms and traffic when this entire 5th semester is dedicated to the study of Web 2.0 tools? Why not put these tools to the test?
In Week 4, we focus on Wikis: Can wikis support robust collaborations and project work with virtual groups? We know it works over the week between classes. But what happens when a 5 hour f2f is moved online and students are expected to be available to work on a group project and expected to turn in a number of deliverables by the end of class? How does an instructor judge participation? What can a student do to ensure they are seen? What issues or concerns are associated with using a wiki in a virtual class?
Share your 'snow day with Wikis' experience by commenting.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Back Again
It was inevitable. My return to blogging....the start of semester 5 in ITS and now a class required posting for EDIT 413. The students in EDIT 413 are reading Daniel Pink's A Whole New Mind as part of their study of Technology and the Culture of Learning. I wondered what insights the 5th semester ITSers might have to offer if I used that as a topic for this posting? Good time to practice remembering the concepts of that book for your professional portfolio and Exit Experience! But I'm also a week behind the blog topic for EDIT 719-- Blogs in education.
Always the believer in making something count twice.... I think the use of blogs in education directly supports the metaphor of a whole new mind.
Design: Pink quotes John Heskett, "Design...can be defined as the human nature to shape and make our environment...to serve our needs and give meaning to our lives (p. 69)." Using blogs at the highest level of connective writing (as described by Will Richardson) certainly has the power to shape the thinking space of our environment as a blog can be far reaching and foster social negotiation of meaning.
Symphony: Complex blogging (extended analysis and synthesis over a long period of time) (Richardson, 2010, p. 31) offers the opportunity for a writer to bring together comments, links, analysis, previous posts to see a bigger picture.
Empathy: To blog at Richardson's highest level of blogging, requires the use of higher order thinking skills such as analysis and synthesis of thinking beyond the author's own perspectives. This requires the author to seek out multiple perspectives but also to write in such a way that others want to connect with you. Can you do this with imparting information only? It takes more than that. As Maya Angelou shared, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." How you make others feel through blog writing is what keeps them coming back. Blogging requires the author to understand the audience. Rather than walking in their shoes, Thinking in their minds.
Play: Blogs provide the author a chance to experiment and test out thinking, to test out material. There is value in self-reflection and private journaling. But to really play with an idea and move that idea beyond the idea stage, it just might take playing around with it in a wider audience. Research and publishing used to scare, intimidate me. But then I thought of it as an adventure, a chance to 'play' with ideas in the field of educational technology and receive feedback and sometimes, validation for my ideas. Really embracing the Vygotskian notion that play is learning/ work is the application of learning, gives me permission to do so, to justify that all of this play is for the sake of learning. Great ideas just don't happen or appear. Artist Chuck Close reminisced, "Inspiration is for amateurs. the rest of us just show up and get to work. Every great idea I've ever had grew out of work itself." Work=Learning, Learning=Play. We need play to learn. We need to learn to work. We need to work to spark ideas.
Story: As we face an age where we must put ourselves on an Information Diet we must do more than be good at developing an argument. The age of Abundance requires us to differentiate our arguments, to become more compelling in our presentation. With students we can spend all of our teaching time scrolling through powerpoint slides loaded with text and information. Is this an effective way to teach? What would happen if content was delivered as a story, a narrative, through lessons in life, through relevant examples, through image? Blogging to share that story, those lessons is invaluable. After all, a number of published books began as blogs and you too can turn your blog into a book for a fee, of course :)
Meaning: E.M. Forster said, "How can I know what I think till I see what I say?" Writing has always been an author's companion. But Blogging takes it to a whole new level with the ability to publish thoughts and negotiate meaning with a wider audience. Blogging gives purpose to our thoughts.
So if you are looking for justification as to why blogs are important in educational practice, here are six to start you off. And if you need a reminder of the metaphor describing a whole new mind as a means to survive a world impacted by the 3 A's....here are the six dimensions.
Always the believer in making something count twice.... I think the use of blogs in education directly supports the metaphor of a whole new mind.
Design: Pink quotes John Heskett, "Design...can be defined as the human nature to shape and make our environment...to serve our needs and give meaning to our lives (p. 69)." Using blogs at the highest level of connective writing (as described by Will Richardson) certainly has the power to shape the thinking space of our environment as a blog can be far reaching and foster social negotiation of meaning.
Symphony: Complex blogging (extended analysis and synthesis over a long period of time) (Richardson, 2010, p. 31) offers the opportunity for a writer to bring together comments, links, analysis, previous posts to see a bigger picture.
Empathy: To blog at Richardson's highest level of blogging, requires the use of higher order thinking skills such as analysis and synthesis of thinking beyond the author's own perspectives. This requires the author to seek out multiple perspectives but also to write in such a way that others want to connect with you. Can you do this with imparting information only? It takes more than that. As Maya Angelou shared, "I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." How you make others feel through blog writing is what keeps them coming back. Blogging requires the author to understand the audience. Rather than walking in their shoes, Thinking in their minds.
Play: Blogs provide the author a chance to experiment and test out thinking, to test out material. There is value in self-reflection and private journaling. But to really play with an idea and move that idea beyond the idea stage, it just might take playing around with it in a wider audience. Research and publishing used to scare, intimidate me. But then I thought of it as an adventure, a chance to 'play' with ideas in the field of educational technology and receive feedback and sometimes, validation for my ideas. Really embracing the Vygotskian notion that play is learning/ work is the application of learning, gives me permission to do so, to justify that all of this play is for the sake of learning. Great ideas just don't happen or appear. Artist Chuck Close reminisced, "Inspiration is for amateurs. the rest of us just show up and get to work. Every great idea I've ever had grew out of work itself." Work=Learning, Learning=Play. We need play to learn. We need to learn to work. We need to work to spark ideas.
Story: As we face an age where we must put ourselves on an Information Diet we must do more than be good at developing an argument. The age of Abundance requires us to differentiate our arguments, to become more compelling in our presentation. With students we can spend all of our teaching time scrolling through powerpoint slides loaded with text and information. Is this an effective way to teach? What would happen if content was delivered as a story, a narrative, through lessons in life, through relevant examples, through image? Blogging to share that story, those lessons is invaluable. After all, a number of published books began as blogs and you too can turn your blog into a book for a fee, of course :)
Meaning: E.M. Forster said, "How can I know what I think till I see what I say?" Writing has always been an author's companion. But Blogging takes it to a whole new level with the ability to publish thoughts and negotiate meaning with a wider audience. Blogging gives purpose to our thoughts.
So if you are looking for justification as to why blogs are important in educational practice, here are six to start you off. And if you need a reminder of the metaphor describing a whole new mind as a means to survive a world impacted by the 3 A's....here are the six dimensions.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Digital Video Editing
It was been an enlightening last few weeks of exploration with Digital Video Editing. Every year new issues and challenges arise. I seem to remember NEVER having issues when we used the old digital recorders with iMovie software!
While flip cameras do offer a fast and simple way to put together videos using flip software, the proprietary nature of the tool requires a bit more practice and experience when combining the flip captured videos with Windows Movie Maker. The challenges experienced during the practice videos were varied. Some issues could easily be resolved:
1. Save the flip video clips locally on the computer to be used during the editing process.
2. Complete all three steps of the video process: import videos, edit clips, Finish movie (the rendering stage in which all the pieces are put together, compressed, and made into a .wmv file.
3. Save the project file when you first open Windows Movie Maker, and SAVE FREQUENTLY!
4. Be sure that all pieces to be imported (video, pictures, music) are saved in the same place locally on the computer where the project file. Files saved on flash drives or on the Flip video and then imported into Movie maker itself may appear to be imported. However, as you work with these files you will notice the BIG RED X that eventually takes over your 'imported' clip. Panic ensues!
5. Consider--Are the clip formats compatible with Movie Maker? Flip creates .avi files. For importing purposes it is important that you choose to import the correct file format from the drop down list.
Other issues remain a mystery. Can Movie Maker only handle a certain amount of imported material and then starts replacing perfectly edited clips with the BIG RED X? Could it be that out of all the computers that could be chosen, Group N used the computer that simply wouldn't play fair?
These mysteries make the process of Non-Linear Editing particularly frustrating for use with K-12 students but most likely can be resolved by proper implementation planning (i.e. testing out the equipment that will actually be used).
Lori Rothman, a 1012 Loudoun cohort ITSer, developed a cheat sheet for using Windows Movie Maker that is quite useful. She actually created the document as part of her Desktop Publishing project last summer. She graciously shared her document with me and I will be sure to send all 1012 ITSers a copy.
After I introduce DV editing and ITSers have had the opportunity to explore the use of the tool, I always make a list things to consider for next year. On my list this year:
1. Explore other video camera options. Any suggestions?
2. Require certain elements to be included in the practice video to provide practice in editing and creating a movie with a variety of media: images, free published video clips, free audio, free music, other .....
3. Possibly having one group create the treatment and the script and pass it off to another group to actually film. I think this would work well in Semester 2 with the video joke assignment since ITSers do not have as much invested in the content as they do during the Advocacy project.
Any other considerations?
While flip cameras do offer a fast and simple way to put together videos using flip software, the proprietary nature of the tool requires a bit more practice and experience when combining the flip captured videos with Windows Movie Maker. The challenges experienced during the practice videos were varied. Some issues could easily be resolved:
1. Save the flip video clips locally on the computer to be used during the editing process.
2. Complete all three steps of the video process: import videos, edit clips, Finish movie (the rendering stage in which all the pieces are put together, compressed, and made into a .wmv file.
3. Save the project file when you first open Windows Movie Maker, and SAVE FREQUENTLY!
4. Be sure that all pieces to be imported (video, pictures, music) are saved in the same place locally on the computer where the project file. Files saved on flash drives or on the Flip video and then imported into Movie maker itself may appear to be imported. However, as you work with these files you will notice the BIG RED X that eventually takes over your 'imported' clip. Panic ensues!
5. Consider--Are the clip formats compatible with Movie Maker? Flip creates .avi files. For importing purposes it is important that you choose to import the correct file format from the drop down list.
Other issues remain a mystery. Can Movie Maker only handle a certain amount of imported material and then starts replacing perfectly edited clips with the BIG RED X? Could it be that out of all the computers that could be chosen, Group N used the computer that simply wouldn't play fair?
These mysteries make the process of Non-Linear Editing particularly frustrating for use with K-12 students but most likely can be resolved by proper implementation planning (i.e. testing out the equipment that will actually be used).
Lori Rothman, a 1012 Loudoun cohort ITSer, developed a cheat sheet for using Windows Movie Maker that is quite useful. She actually created the document as part of her Desktop Publishing project last summer. She graciously shared her document with me and I will be sure to send all 1012 ITSers a copy.
After I introduce DV editing and ITSers have had the opportunity to explore the use of the tool, I always make a list things to consider for next year. On my list this year:
1. Explore other video camera options. Any suggestions?
2. Require certain elements to be included in the practice video to provide practice in editing and creating a movie with a variety of media: images, free published video clips, free audio, free music, other .....
3. Possibly having one group create the treatment and the script and pass it off to another group to actually film. I think this would work well in Semester 2 with the video joke assignment since ITSers do not have as much invested in the content as they do during the Advocacy project.
Any other considerations?
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Connections: Teacher Leadership and Portfolios
In keeping with the ITS Semester 5 assignment schedule, it is time for me to post to my blog. Yes, it is supposed to be on Blogs and Wikis, but I didn't even post my Semester 5 intro blog....so now I'm backtracking a bit (for those of you repeating my 5 rules for participating in Web 2.0 ITS activities, do as I say not as I do) and count this as my intro post for the Semester.
Since this semester not only focuses on Web 2.0 tools but also on teacher leadership, I thought I would share two teacher leadership moments which clearly are the result of teacher leader actions influenced by learning in the ITS program.
The first ITS teacher leader action came to light on Tuesday, February 14, 2012, when our Loudoun cohort ITSer, Lucy Shoop, spoke to the LCPS School board about the proposed cuts in the fiscal 2013 budget adopted Feb. 7. The Foreign Language in Elementary School program (FLES) was a major target of cuts, costing 35 current full-time employees their jobs. As reported in yesterday's LoudounTime.com, Lucy, a FLES teacher gave the school board a dose of ITS :
What is the goal of education? I think we can all come up with different statements of what we think the goal is for education. But, I think we can also agree that the goal of education is to create an educated person... If you’re not able to speak another language that is necessary in your community you are not going to get a job. If there are two people applying for a job and one speaks the language of the community and the other only speaks the native language of the country, the one that speaks the language of the community is going to get the job. We have a responsibility in Loudoun County Public Schools to prepare our students to not only obtain jobs in our community, but in the world.
In another moment, Fairfax cohort ITSer, Amy Bolvari, educated the Epals community about the 'worth it' value of her lesson, which led her students to be chosen as 1 of 10 global winners in the Smithsonian Institute's Invention Challenge:
The authentic nature of this project engaged students and integrated their learning. They had to access prior knowledge of simple machines in order to complete the project. By using multiple forms of media, the students were able to showcase their knowledge in a fun and meaningful way.
Add these actions to your list of teacher leader roles: advocate, ITS evangelist- whatever you want to call them
In both of these teacher leadership moments, the connection to ITS concepts is evident. What terrific portfolio reflections! I know that each and everyday ITSers are walking the walk. As the connections between the ITS semesters are becoming more apparent, you are all most likely talking the talk with students, parents, colleagues, and administrators. The time has come for talking the talk to be translated into written reflections. Be very conscious of your conversations with others. Chances are you are writing brilliant reflections all day long!
Since this semester not only focuses on Web 2.0 tools but also on teacher leadership, I thought I would share two teacher leadership moments which clearly are the result of teacher leader actions influenced by learning in the ITS program.
The first ITS teacher leader action came to light on Tuesday, February 14, 2012, when our Loudoun cohort ITSer, Lucy Shoop, spoke to the LCPS School board about the proposed cuts in the fiscal 2013 budget adopted Feb. 7. The Foreign Language in Elementary School program (FLES) was a major target of cuts, costing 35 current full-time employees their jobs. As reported in yesterday's LoudounTime.com, Lucy, a FLES teacher gave the school board a dose of ITS :
What is the goal of education? I think we can all come up with different statements of what we think the goal is for education. But, I think we can also agree that the goal of education is to create an educated person... If you’re not able to speak another language that is necessary in your community you are not going to get a job. If there are two people applying for a job and one speaks the language of the community and the other only speaks the native language of the country, the one that speaks the language of the community is going to get the job. We have a responsibility in Loudoun County Public Schools to prepare our students to not only obtain jobs in our community, but in the world.
In another moment, Fairfax cohort ITSer, Amy Bolvari, educated the Epals community about the 'worth it' value of her lesson, which led her students to be chosen as 1 of 10 global winners in the Smithsonian Institute's Invention Challenge:
The authentic nature of this project engaged students and integrated their learning. They had to access prior knowledge of simple machines in order to complete the project. By using multiple forms of media, the students were able to showcase their knowledge in a fun and meaningful way.
Add these actions to your list of teacher leader roles: advocate, ITS evangelist- whatever you want to call them
In both of these teacher leadership moments, the connection to ITS concepts is evident. What terrific portfolio reflections! I know that each and everyday ITSers are walking the walk. As the connections between the ITS semesters are becoming more apparent, you are all most likely talking the talk with students, parents, colleagues, and administrators. The time has come for talking the talk to be translated into written reflections. Be very conscious of your conversations with others. Chances are you are writing brilliant reflections all day long!
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
What's Wrong with this?
Last week one of my news aggregators found this article: Schools Giving High-Tech Lessons to Give Students Information.
I was intrigued by the title since the use of the word 'give' in association with teaching always makes me cringe. As a teacher designer, I do not want to give information or give lessons. The news article describes several ways Ohio schools are giving students information through the use of Web 2.0 tools and other technology tools in what they deem High-Tech lessons. My favorite quote:
"At Chardon Middle School, one seventh-grade classroom is partnering with another class in Beachwood, connecting via Skype, which allows students to see each other as they interact by computer.The classes study for quizzes together and are collaborating on writing an online world history textbook."
What???? Using technology as a means to study for quizzes? Collaborating on writing an online world history textbook is fine, but it is not what I would call a high-tech lesson. It is a great initial use of Wikis. But where is the synthesis, the analysis, the concluding, and other higher order thinking? When I think of creating an online textbook, I think of regurgitation of facts. Technology is technology. What is High-Tech? To author in this article it appears to be defined as the latest and greatest.
Falling into the technology trap and grasping onto to the latest technology before understanding how that technology can be used to support higher order thinking is simply using the technology as a Gimmick.
The focus of schools, school districts, administrators, teachers, and parents should be on High-Level Thinking, not celebrating the fact that a school is using the lastest and greatest to foster low-level thinking.
I was intrigued by the title since the use of the word 'give' in association with teaching always makes me cringe. As a teacher designer, I do not want to give information or give lessons. The news article describes several ways Ohio schools are giving students information through the use of Web 2.0 tools and other technology tools in what they deem High-Tech lessons. My favorite quote:
"At Chardon Middle School, one seventh-grade classroom is partnering with another class in Beachwood, connecting via Skype, which allows students to see each other as they interact by computer.The classes study for quizzes together and are collaborating on writing an online world history textbook."
What???? Using technology as a means to study for quizzes? Collaborating on writing an online world history textbook is fine, but it is not what I would call a high-tech lesson. It is a great initial use of Wikis. But where is the synthesis, the analysis, the concluding, and other higher order thinking? When I think of creating an online textbook, I think of regurgitation of facts. Technology is technology. What is High-Tech? To author in this article it appears to be defined as the latest and greatest.
Falling into the technology trap and grasping onto to the latest technology before understanding how that technology can be used to support higher order thinking is simply using the technology as a Gimmick.
The focus of schools, school districts, administrators, teachers, and parents should be on High-Level Thinking, not celebrating the fact that a school is using the lastest and greatest to foster low-level thinking.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Scholarly publications
Didn't see any music stars in Nashville while attending the 2011 SITE conference, but I did get to see some other kinds of stars....the scholarly type. I attended more presentations this year than ever before, and even more exciting, I was less disappointed than in previous years. Oh sure there still were presentations that did not come close to living up to their abstracts. Lots of presentations with 'Design' in the title were offered, but most lacked a connection with design as I understand it.
One star that was noticeably missing was Bernie Dodge. We later discovered he was ill and wasn't able to attend the conference. However, organizers failed to mention the absence to those that gathered for his first scheduled presentation. After 10 minutes of wondering if we were going to take a journey with Bernie in QuestGarden, we had a great conversation about Webquests. Those attendess unfamiliar with Dr. Dodge's work, were able to hear first hand accounts from those in the trenches who use Webquests in K-12 AND Higher Ed classrooms.
A presentation among hundreds that caught my eye was "Engaging Students Through Participation in Keypals Exchanges." HUH? Keypals? In this day an age? Isn't that an 'old' instructional strategy? And that is precisely what caught my attention. In the age of Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web, among the newer innovations that SITE scholars took on as their research focus, a powerful activity structure emerged from the pages of my program. I listened intently as the quiet German Middle School teacher from Pennsylvania explained her design plan and implementation, all the while thinking, our ITSers could do this!!!! Not only can ITSers do the project but also write the scholarly paper AND present it at an International conference. Yes, this researcher was a doctoral student, but she emphasized at the beginning of the presentation that she was a classroom teacher. It was refreshing to see that Keypals have not been forgotten, are still considered and proven to be valid instructional strategies, and that when used in a well-designed unit powerful learning experiences can happen.
To read this paper, visit University Libraries. From the Research Databases link, go to the Education link, then EdITLib Digital Libary. You will need your Mason email username and Mason email password to log in. Susan Featro is the author of the paper.
One star that was noticeably missing was Bernie Dodge. We later discovered he was ill and wasn't able to attend the conference. However, organizers failed to mention the absence to those that gathered for his first scheduled presentation. After 10 minutes of wondering if we were going to take a journey with Bernie in QuestGarden, we had a great conversation about Webquests. Those attendess unfamiliar with Dr. Dodge's work, were able to hear first hand accounts from those in the trenches who use Webquests in K-12 AND Higher Ed classrooms.
A presentation among hundreds that caught my eye was "Engaging Students Through Participation in Keypals Exchanges." HUH? Keypals? In this day an age? Isn't that an 'old' instructional strategy? And that is precisely what caught my attention. In the age of Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web, among the newer innovations that SITE scholars took on as their research focus, a powerful activity structure emerged from the pages of my program. I listened intently as the quiet German Middle School teacher from Pennsylvania explained her design plan and implementation, all the while thinking, our ITSers could do this!!!! Not only can ITSers do the project but also write the scholarly paper AND present it at an International conference. Yes, this researcher was a doctoral student, but she emphasized at the beginning of the presentation that she was a classroom teacher. It was refreshing to see that Keypals have not been forgotten, are still considered and proven to be valid instructional strategies, and that when used in a well-designed unit powerful learning experiences can happen.
To read this paper, visit University Libraries. From the Research Databases link, go to the Education link, then EdITLib Digital Libary. You will need your Mason email username and Mason email password to log in. Susan Featro is the author of the paper.
Monday, March 7, 2011
noTLB website
Last night I was rereading Bradbury's 1953 short story, The Murderer, to prepare for Monday's undergrad class. No, I'm not trying to glean a new teaching strategy to use on undergrads. We are finishing up Tapscott's Grown Up Digital and preparing to write short stories about the classroom of the future. My iPad incessantly notified me of incoming emails as I was reading. I was starting feel just like the Murderer, people keeping in touch, "mauled and massaged and pounded" (Bradbury, 1983, p. 244). But a portable diathermy machine would not be a solution to interfere with today's communication.
I pondered declaring email bankruptcy, but that didn't seem to be a responsible thing to do mid-semester. I went back to my tried and true method (and psychologically more manageable for me): Sorting the From field in alphabetical order and starting with the Z's.
When I got to the A's (and all of you A's who heard from me between yesterday and today can attest that I did reach the 'bottom' of my list), I came across an email from Nisha Arnold, subject: Education. Now I get a lot of educator and researcher stuff....attend the e-learning conference in Madrid!, publish in The Journal of School Nursing (figure that one out), ASCD breaking news....you get the idea. So "Education" as a subject line is a bit too vague to warrant anything more than DELETE. However, in the body of the text, I spotted 'noTLB.' Well a good ITSer never lets an abbreviation or acromyn go by without understanding the meaning.
noTLB=no Teacher Left Behind
noTLB is 'FREE website that helps ensure that no teacher is left behind by cataloging the online education community, and presenting it to you in a user friendly fashion.' It is wiki-like, blog-like, social, and collaborative. I especially was interested in the Free Tools/Software link under the View Resources tab. It is similar to a link provided by Aeronia Poole: the Emerging Top 100 Tools for Learning in 2011, rated by educators all over the world.
Take a look at noTLB if you have time. There are thousands and thousands of online resources for teachers but I thought this one was interesting in its organization and collaborative activities. Will educators participate? How long will this website be relevant? Is it relevant, useful, necessary? Is it too much information? Too much connectiveness? Time will tell.
Reference
Bradbury, R. (1983). The stories of Ray Bradbury (4th ed.). New York: Knopf
I pondered declaring email bankruptcy, but that didn't seem to be a responsible thing to do mid-semester. I went back to my tried and true method (and psychologically more manageable for me): Sorting the From field in alphabetical order and starting with the Z's.
When I got to the A's (and all of you A's who heard from me between yesterday and today can attest that I did reach the 'bottom' of my list), I came across an email from Nisha Arnold, subject: Education. Now I get a lot of educator and researcher stuff....attend the e-learning conference in Madrid!, publish in The Journal of School Nursing (figure that one out), ASCD breaking news....you get the idea. So "Education" as a subject line is a bit too vague to warrant anything more than DELETE. However, in the body of the text, I spotted 'noTLB.' Well a good ITSer never lets an abbreviation or acromyn go by without understanding the meaning.
noTLB=no Teacher Left Behind
noTLB is 'FREE website that helps ensure that no teacher is left behind by cataloging the online education community, and presenting it to you in a user friendly fashion.' It is wiki-like, blog-like, social, and collaborative. I especially was interested in the Free Tools/Software link under the View Resources tab. It is similar to a link provided by Aeronia Poole: the Emerging Top 100 Tools for Learning in 2011, rated by educators all over the world.
Take a look at noTLB if you have time. There are thousands and thousands of online resources for teachers but I thought this one was interesting in its organization and collaborative activities. Will educators participate? How long will this website be relevant? Is it relevant, useful, necessary? Is it too much information? Too much connectiveness? Time will tell.
Reference
Bradbury, R. (1983). The stories of Ray Bradbury (4th ed.). New York: Knopf
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