iLead:Developing 21st Century Instructional Technology Skills to Enhance Leading and Learn

Agenda

Welcome
Icebreaker
Review & Questions
Overview Web 2.0
Aggregator/RSS
Customizing iGoogle Space
Google Suite
Create Blog
Evaluation

Training Flow

Introduction to Leading and Learning with 21st Century Tools:

Piano stairs - Rolighetsteorin.se - The fun theory

Overview: Web 2.0 tools
-- What is Web 2.0 and how can it be the engine for a 21st century school?

"Visions of Today's Students"

Aggregators: Create our own RSS homepage to be a portal to news sites, blogs, and other syndicated material

-- Creating an account on a web-based RSS Aggregator: iGoogle

-- Moving content and deleting content

-- Adding content: from the catalogue, through the search, and by URL

-- Finding RSS feeds for blog sites

Break / Individual assistance
Blogs: Create our own weblog to communicate to our learning communities

-- Best Practices: Principal blogs, specialist blogs, teacher blogs

-- Understanding the importance of knowing your audience, posting with consistency, developing blog writing tone, and wrapping the blog in its purpose

-- Creating a blog account for ourselves on Blogger.com

-- Writing our first post: audience, tone, purpose

-- Types of blog entries: article spotlights, interviews, professional thoughts, opinions, investigative

-- Dealing with security: settings, comment moderation, permissions and levels

-- Things you should change: blog description, time zone, who can comment

-- Email assitance: enabling comment notification, enabling posting via email

Evaluation/Ongoing Support

Directions / tutorials for what we learned in this workshop

Below are links to video tutorials for topics we learned in this workshop. These are narrated video directions that you can pause, rewind, and replay to help you remember how to work with RSS and blogs.

iGoogle

Moving and deleting content
Adding content by catalogue and search
Adding content by URL

Blogger

Access your Blogger account
Making a new post
Dealing with security
Things you should change to make your blog work better
Adding Hyperlinks and Images

Making Great Blogs: Tips and Tools to Keep your Blog Active

What makes a great blog?

According to the eSchool News, the group who manages the ‘Best of the Education Blog’ competition, the following traits make a great blog.

1. Personality: Is there a clear personality? Do you feel like you know the writer? Is there a feeling of intimacy that might be missing from mainstream media or other forms of communication?
2. Usefulness: Is the information useful or enjoyable to read? Did it make you think, or laugh, or click? Are there handy links to other places?
3. Writing style: Is the writing in the blog snappy, crisp, and engaging to read? Or is it long-winded, dull, convoluted, or sloppy? Worse, is it a sales pitch disguised as a blog? Or just news briefs or bullet-point items without any fresh perspective, analysis, or insight?
4. Usability and design: Is the typeface easy to read? Can you find links to archives? Is the writing concise and easily skimmable? Are graphics limited to what’s useful or fun?
5. Frequency: Is the blog updated regularly, and with sufficient frequency?
6. Relevancy: Does the blog stay on topic, and is it relevant to the category in which it is being judged?
7. Interactivity: Does the blog incorporate video or audio in an engaging, interactive way? Does it offer a forum for readers to respond, or use other features to help develop a sense of community?
8. Fulfillment of purpose: How well does the blog fulfill its intended mission?
9. Appropriateness: Does the blogger use language and etiquette that is appropriate to a professional educational setting?
10. Would you revisit: Is it useful or engaging enough for you to visit it again someday?
Look for these traits in the blogs you use…. or create!
Blogs for Principals

So how does all of this relate to your role as an administrator? It appears that many major organizations and individual administrators are starting to produce blogs. It is worth a few minutes of your time to review a several blogs that might be relevant to your role as a school leader. They may also provide some models that you might consider.

Writers Block?

Your new blogs can revolutionize communication in your school but they have to remain active. If you're stuck and not sure what to write, check out the examples below. Remember you can add authors to your blog to ensure that a regular posting is made: assistant principals, coaches, parent coordinators, etc...

Announcements / Calendar of Events / Reminders:

Informal education / Best Practices:

Article reflections:

Soliciting feedback:

Communicating expectations:

How to:

Public acknowledgment: