Bloggy Bootcamp Thoughts

Just got home from Bloggy Bootcamp http://www.thesitsgirls.com/bloggy-boot-camp/
So much to think about! I'm not even sure where to start! I'm thinking I need to start all over, start from scratch - just forget about all I've done thus far, rethink what I'm doing and why I'm doing it... I don't know.

I need to post! It's been so long!

I've noticed that it is hard to keep up with all the different web 2.0 things I've gotten myself involved with! I haven't posted on this blog in almost a week, but I have been posting and frequently checking the teacher inquiry blog I started for November's TIC class. I haven't checked my Google reader lately, I'm sure I have several things to read and catch up on there. I finally posted something new on Facebook. I think it's been a month since I've been on there. As for Twitter....maybe I will check in on that after I post this! How does one keep up with all of this? It takes a lot of time! I should hunt down the NING I created and do something with that, but what? The Wiki I've made for the k-12 math cohort is getting neglected, I think the last edit was back in September. Hmmmm....
This reflection leads me to think about teaching writing and how audience and purpose determines genre in most cases, if not all! The same could be said/taught about all the web 2.0 tools - what is my purpose? Who is my audience? Which tool will best fit? I wish I knew how to get this reflection out where others would read it and provide some feedback. I need to hear from folks that manage their life effectively with multiple web 2.0 tool use. I need to know if this is even what folks are doing! Maybe at the "Bloggy Bootcamp" class I'm taking tomorrow will help me with this!

Wikis

I'm learning about Wikis and their potential use in the classroom. Again, I am learning from Will Richardson's book, Blogs, Wikis Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, 3rd Edition.
I love the opening quote to chapter 4, "Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing." Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder.
That's what this is all about. A new agreement on what collaboration and negotiation implies at a global level. It's quite amazing. I would love to start a wiki where all teacher researchers using action research contribute to the process of this work. I tried a Ning for this purpose last year. It's dormant - I have not revisited it, and it has had zero visitors other than a few colleagues that I tried to get to use the Ning. They had trouble signing in, or even creating an account or some other trouble...the whole thing just flopped. So, how do we get the traffic we hope for in order to make this collaboration successful? That's what I need to learn now. The same question can be applied to this blog. Why would anyone want to visit this blog? How would I get others to visit it, and contribute to my thinking? Is this even necessary?

So Excited!

I sent a text to Treena and asked her to try and post on our TIC blog. After a few texting exchanges, we and sending invitations to be an author one more time, it worked! It was a really cool feeling, knowing that we figured this out and created something that will allow open communication with all 24 TIC members. I wonder if all TIC members will know how to get where they need to be to accept their invite and start posting? That will be interesting! Treena needed help but not much, I just had to re-send the invite. I will keep track of this process, how it all pans out. It may be something I can use in my data. Treena just told me that she had fun getting this all figured out and that hopefully she will have a blog created to use with her students soon. YEAH!!!

TIC Blog Update

Not only will the White Pine teacher researchers be using our tic blog, www.whitepinetic.blogspot.com/
but, we've also decided to have the teacher-researchers from the Northeastern part of the state, Humboldt,  join the blog. I would say this is a huge using-technology-step for me. I anticipate a number of learning experiences will arise from this online class formate.

First online class!

Tonight I created a blog so my teacher inquiry group could have an online class for the month of November. I notice that the more I use Blogger, the quicker it is to create a blog. I worried about creating a blog that all the teachers could post on. I finally figured that last step out just by hunting around the different options and tools. The tab titled "Permissions" was the winning tab! All 17 teachers have been invited to our blog, http://whitepinetic.blogspot.com/! I hope to see posts coming in soon!

baby steps

Just learned how to change my URL address for this blog! I am now located at
http://becomingatechyteacher.blogspot.com/
WOOO HOOO!!! Each new learning experience, not matter how small, will make a difference!

The more I reflect upon what to write, the more I have to write about.

What I've noticed about my blog posts... If I'm not reading something about using technology, I have nothing to reflect on and write about. This tells me that I need to do more reading and or experiencing new technology tools so I have something to think about and write about. I need to set a goal for myself. Each day I need to read a few pages from one of the many books I have about incorporating technology into classroom instruction and I need to read blog postings from Will Richardson's blog or Puny's site. From this reading I can analyze each message and synthesize how this new information relates to my current understandings about technology. I need to figure out how this can become my TIC project. What is my question? How can I incorporate this blog into my project? How will this blog help me become a better writer and a better user of technology? How can my learning be useful to a larger audience of educators? I could collect data on time commitment and related benefits. I could code the text in each blog post to show a level of growth and confidence in my use of technology. If this is my plan then I need to create a template that I include with each post that helps me collect this data.
What technology have I used since starting this blog, that I have not used in the past?
1. This blog!
2. Google docs for TIC
3. RSS
4. Text message tools (polleverywhere and Wiffity)
5. Wordle
6. I've attempted to upload video of my writing workshop conferencing but have been unsuccessful so far.
7. I've created a family web site with Google sites, but need to work on this site...make it better.

This is all I can think of now. I think I've got a good start!