Learning Side by Side

At the end of 2007, I received various holiday cards from family and friends summarizing their year.  I found out about new family pets, acquaintances changing employers, and even growing families based on photographs sent to me.  My family returned the favor with holiday cards being sent off through the U.S. Mail, featuring pictures of our Summer vacation to Alaska and a description of what we had been doing this past year.  Well, I thought it fitting to review the past year for me professionally in order to illustrate how much and how little I have changed.

The diagram below (pointed out today in Mr W’s Blogging Great Thing  as an entry titled The Year of the Diagram?) conveys where I was at in January.  Alec Couros of the University of Regina and author of Open Thinking & Digital Pedagogy developed and published this illustration in his Doctoral thesis (page 182).

My network in January reflected the above diagram as I limited my use of social networks until this year. I began the year by doing the following: (1) Consulted schools on videoconferencing, (2) Began writing a Google Tools section for an Emerging Technologies Course in my district’s Moodle course management system, (3) Began mentoring two more California State University of Los Angeles graduate interns in Educational Technology Leadership, (4) Participated in initial stages of a HENAAC partnership project, (5) Went to a school to conduct an Inspiration workshop, and (6) Introduced PhotoStory at a monthly Technology Leader Meeting I organize. It was also a time when I found out I had passed my comprehensive exam, earning an administrative credential at California State University of Northridge.

With completion of my administrative credential program, I found February to be the month to begin facilitating online classes for EDC on Blackboard.  In addition, I continued with these other activities: (1) Introduced social bookmarking at a Technology Leader Meeting., (2) Facilitated workshops on the technology integration of social studies to the 60+ elementary schools in my local district, (3) Gave an opportunity for others to learn about Boot Camp and Parallels on the Mac, and (4) Heard Alan November speak to myself and other colleagues here in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

In March, I once again attended the Computer-Using Educators Conference and was elected to serve another term as a CUE Los Angeles board member.  I also found myself continuing to advocate for videoconferencing by helping teachers at two high schools conduct various events with California State Parks and the California K-12 High Speed Network.  And participants at this month’s Technology Leader Meeting were treated to an introduction to podcasting.

April allowed me to offer a CTAP Proficiency Academy for beginning technology users as well work on the following: (1) Facilitation of another set of classroom videoconferences at an elementary school with PORTS, (2) Introduction to RSS at the Technology Leadership Meeting, (3) Presenting Web 2.0 Tools at the Infotech Conference, (4) Conducting another Inspiration workshop at a school site, and (5) Develop a Local District 5 PBwiki.  Meanwhile, I submitted an application to attend the Southern California Google Teacher Academy.  I almost did the same to become an Apple Distinguished Educator this month as well but found that my participation in that program could be considered a violation of the ethics policies of my district.  Nevertheless, I was excited to have created and uploaded a video to the Google Video site.

I began May by facilitating several classes/workshops and then making sure the month ended with my own time to learn from others. I conducted the following events this month: (1) an online course called Learning and Teaching with the Read/Write Web, (2) a Skype demonstration at the Technology Leader Meeting, and (3) a course titled Standards-Based Virtual Fieldtrips with Videoconferencing.  My own learning increased dramatically as I (1) joined the Classroom 2.0 social network, (2) absorbed inspiration from a presentation by Marcia L. Tatecalled Worksheets Don’t Grow Dendrites, (3) became a Google Certified Teacher, and (4) learned filming techniques from the American Film Institute at the Google Teacher Academy.

June was the month of culmination as I finished teaching a couple of courses for teachers as well as attended my own CSUN Commencement.  But it was also the springboard for other opportunities as I helped lead presentations on Google Tools for colleagues so they could turn around and present them.  And another group of teachers attended a CTAP Technology Integration Academy once their school year ended.

They filed a missing person’s report in my office during July because I was always out in the field.  If it wasn’t one of two CTAP Technology Academies that kept me away, then it was the Teach the Teachers Collaborative as I conducted workshops on Google Earth as well as helped teachers develop podcasts using GarageBand and through the use of tools such as Google Docs & Spreadsheets and resources developed via Web 2.0.  At this time, I fiddled around just a bit with Twitter. Somewhere during that time, I was able to also participate in the planning and facilitation of my own office’s teambuilding retreat.

I took a vacation in August, but I used that time to create an example of photosharing and geotagging.  My Alaska cruisetour was perfect as I documented where my family went with images that could be viewed in Picasa or even Google Earth.  Once I came back from vacation, my own Google Earth presentations I conducted later were enhanced even greater.

September marked a period when I began mentoring my wife on the use of SMART Notebook as well as conducting another Virtual Field Trips class.  I also transitioned delivery of my monthly Local District 5 Instructional Technology Newsletter from its traditional e-mail distribution and PDF archive into a source that could be subscribed to with RSS and archived in Blogger.  In addition, my wife and I dedicated ourselves to teaching Sunday School to 1^st graders at our church.

I took time in October to provide more instructional support via (1) classroom videoconferencing at various schools, (2) a Web 2.0 presentation to library media teachers, and (3) a Technology Leader Meeting focusing on LAUSD’s version of Google Apps called My Mail.  I also reintroduced myself to Twitter as a learning tool as well as a way to let others know about CUE Los Angeles.  Simultaneously, I remixed my Second Life personality (I got tired of the Goth look) to something I felt more comfortable with.  I also came back to blogging again as others encouraged me to provide them insight into events I attended such as the 21st Century Learning Symposium.

November began quickly with the CUELA Tech Fair as I provided an Introduction to Google Earth.  I also participated in the Megaconference as well as began supporting presentations at schools by others by “tweeting” about them.  I found that Twitter was a great way for me to take quick notes, allowing me to share my learning with others; this can best be seen in the graph of my use per mont below generated from Brad Kellet’s Twitter Stats (ignore the January data since it depicts my January 2008 use to date.  I also began viewing more USTREAM.tv shows, learning from various presentations at other conferences.

December marked a time when I delved ever more deeply into Twitter. Coupled with my del.icio.us account, it became a resource boom for me.  The graph below, generated from data entered into Google Docs & Spreadsheets, shows the spike in my bookmarking habits.

The CTAP Proficiency Academy near the end of the month, though, kept me grounded as the popularity of the program indicates that there are still so many teachers that are just learning how to operate a computer.  Many of these participants were barely learning about word processing and presentation development, making me aware that I have to continue to mentor my colleagues and share my learning with them.

Nevertheless, Alec Corous’ other diagram illustrating “The Networked Teacher” (shown above) represents where I feel I am now as I begin my learning in 2008.  I can truly say that I am Learning Side by Side with others.