Your P.D.I.

A number of years ago we created a set of Web pages at Biopoint targeting Web tools. If you look at those pages, the tools contained there still have some applicability. But not that much. As most of us know, online technologies tools have changed dramatically. What hasn't changed however is the need to develop a personal digital infrastructure (P.D.I) , or those set of digital tools, available online, that support a teacher's personal productivity as well as tools that target the creation of learning environments for students.

Years ago I used Backflip, now I use del.icio.us. I also used a third party solution to download transitory Web content, I now use Furl. I also used to build a lot of online curriculum with my online tool, myprojectpages.com. I've not done a lot of that since I left the classroom, but I now wonder about structured Web investigations like WebQuests and my format, called the Project Page, and where they now fit with the new tools of the Web. The point is that much has changed but that certainly will not be a relevation to anyone.

I've redone the Web Tools page and placed it at Jakesonline.org. Many of the tools you will be familiar with but if you are reading this through your aggregator, you're probably a pretty savvy technology user anyway. My intent is to provide beginners with one location to access the many tools that alot of us use on a daily basis so that they can begin building transformitive learning environments with these tools. Using these tools, and having them be part of your arsenal is critical to open source teaching and learning.

If you know of some useful tools, please let me know and I'll include them.

Sandburg meets Flickr

I was looking at Flickr today as was intrigued by the quotes (the one I saw was from Mark Twain) with words that had been hyperlinked to various Flickr tags to represent the content of the quote. Cool idea, as I am always looking for ways to use Flickr for an instructional purpose. Being from Chicago, I took my favorite poem from Carl Sandburg and used the same technique to first hyperlink tags to the words of the poem, and in the second case, link actual photos from Flickr.

Tag Version

Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders


Photo Version

Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders

As I was doing this, I was thinking of all the interpretive possibilities with literature and with the shear volume of photography at Flickr, the endless possibilities to create visual stories with Flickr, that could link Flickr photography with works from authors like Sandburg, or of course, our students.

Could we have students write original stories in a wiki and then have others add visual content? Certainly. Could the students then explain why they used the photography the way they did through a metacognitive evaluation process? Absolutely. What if every student was given the same piece of writing and was asked to apply photography from Flickr? It certainly would be interesting to examine the differences in interpretation that each student would have. Imagine taking a piece of beautiful photography and a likewise beautiful poem and merging the two together in a 21st Century product....that would be the result of 21st Century open source thinking and learning.

The One Room Schoolhouse...

I finally completed my online version of The One Room Schoolhouse-Creating Community in the Digital Age. This presentation was given at the Illinois Technology Conference as a spotlight session and was very well received. Its about all the new tools out there to build community and the power of community as a learning environment. The presentation talks about the strength of weak ties, Blackboard (yes, even Blackboard), Malcolm Gladwell, school districts in Alaska and Michigan, and ditto machines. The stars of the story of course are blogs, wikis, RSS, del.icio.us and furl, not to mention Flickr thrown in for good measure. It's about a half an hour-give it a listen and let me know what you think.

Here is the conference description:

In the one room schoolhouses of the past, community was narrowly defined, composed of students from families over a limited geographical area. However, in today’s digital world, community is not necessarily defined by geography but by shared, common interest. Today’s typical student has the power to connect globally to their own personally-defined network and to interact with people and ideas in a way that was unimaginable ten years ago. With this in mind, this session will explore the power of community as a learning environment, why community is critically important for today’s student, and how learning can be extended by leveraging the natural affinity of students for digital environments. Learn about the tools and instructional techniques that are available to you to increase the connections between students that result in higher levels of engagement, creativity and productivity, and that empower you to literally create a globally-connected one room schoolhouse.