I’m copying and pasting this in from Ewan Macintosh’s weblog, Edu.Blogs.Com. Hope you don’t mind, Ewan. I’m getting ready to present a session at a regional conference, and I want to get this post out there.
Terry Freedman, an independent education consultant in London, coraled some pretty forward thinking educators, and me, to write a little something about Web 2.0. The contributors are listed below. I think that the project came out very well, and it’s free, as a downloaded PDF file.
Coming of Age
The book provides a set of stories, describing the ways in which Web 2.0 technology can be used in schools, particularly as a way of supporting social, collaborative learning, and a more individualised curriculum. I am flattered to be amongst some really thoughtful (and cool) educators and adventurers in the Web 2.0 world:
- Miles Berry
Miles is a deputy headteacher in an English primary school, a Moodle and Elgg enthusiast and the winner of a best practice award. He also gives keynote presentations to conferences.- John Bidder
John is the Head of Curriculum ICT strategy in Bolton, England, and gives keynote presentations about best practice.- Mechelle de Craene
Mechelle is a special education teacher in Florida and undertakes research in the development of educational technology skills in children, and gives presentations on her findings at internatoinal conferences.- John Evans
John Evans is principal of St. François Xavier Community School in St. François Xavier, Manitoba, Canada, and gives conference presentations on the subject of teacher wellness.- Peter Ford
Peter Ford is a teacher and educational consultant based in Nottingham in the UK, spcialising in the use of internet technologies to enhance teaching and learning.- Terry Freedman (Ed)
Terry is an educationalist who provides practical and strategic consultancy services to educational institutions, and provides a range of subscription-based services.- Josie Fraser
Based in England, Josie is an educational technologist and works as a freelance consultant and speaker, mainly around emerging technologies and staff development.- Steve Lee
Steve Lee is a Senior Software Developer, who is uses various techniques for customising ‘off-the-shelf’ software to meet individual accessibility needs. He is also interested in how Open Collaborative Communities can help and involve disabled people.- Ewan McIntosh (ahem, that’s me)
Ewan is an exceptional languages educators and advocate for appropriate uses of technology in teaching and learning, and especially Web 2.0 applications. He’s also from Scotland!- Alan November
Alan November is an international leader in education technology, and runs the annual Building Learning Communities Summer Conference in Boston, USA.- Chris Smith
Based in Thailand, Chris runs a consultancy designed to offer support to International Schools across S.E. Asia, especially in the area of “ICT Across the Curriculum, and maintains an internationally-acclaimed website.- Dai Thomas
Dai is Director of ICT at Warden Park Specialist School in West Sussex and a research Fellow of Mirandanet.- David Warlick
David is an internationnaly-renowned writer, blogger and Podcaster who provides consulting and public speaking services to education associations and agencies around the world.- Shawn Wheeler
Shawn is the Director of IMT – Services & Training for the Peoria Unified School District in Glendale, Arizona, and the founder of Adventures in Podcasting.There will be a wiki in the longer term to allow changes and contributions to the book from elsewhere. In the meantime, head over the look at the SuprGlu feed coming from some of the contibutors’ blogs and bookmarks.
Let us know what you think of the book.
If you flatter me with additions like that you can copy and paste ALL my posts 😉
Looking over the whole thing after a good pause away from it I’m really chuffed with what I see. I think it’s a good mix of educators from a good mix of countries. I’ll be trying to get some Scottish educators to use it as a manual in their school libraries. That, and small-scale projects, is the way I’m managing to get more and more Scottish educators to do something with these tools. The next stage – sustainability and long term, large-scale support. We’re getting there with the MFLE for modern linguists, but much of this is not seen by those outside the French. German, Spanish, Italian circles.
A wee way to go yet…
Hello to David et al,
I previewed the Coming of Age publication last week and I loved it. Bob and I will use it this summer and next fall when we teach our 21 Century Literacy class. It is a great publication for beginners and experts alike. It is just so CURRENT. That is the best part. I also enjoyed reading this as I imagined many of the authors reading in their voices, since I have listened to so many podcasts from the authors.
This publication works well in the current conversations about professional development in technology. I like that there are a variety of voices and explanations. I hope this is the start of something new.
Cheryl Oakes
Let me put on the devil’s hat. I wrote in my blog [ Random Walk in E-Learning]:
…Blog, podcast, videocast and wiki are technological tools. I hope the new world wide web for education is more than just these.
Please visit my blog (http://elearningrandomwalk.blogspot.com/) to see the complete argument.
I just wanted to say how great I think your book is. I really enjoyed reading it, and got some fantastic ideas for activities in my student teaching classroom! I downloaded and printed the book, then shared it with my teacher-mentor, and she is sharing it with her colleagues. I talked about you and the editor in my blog, check it out at:
http://livinthemoment07.blogspot.com/2006/04/as-i-have-mentioned-before-in-my.html
Thanks for making technology so easily to understand and intergrate!
I really enjoyed reading it, and got some fantastic ideas for activities in my students and for leading me.