Here are the slides from my presentations at Learning2.008.
Each of my presentations stemmed from the idea that social tools today allow us to communicate, collaborate, and take collective action like never before.
In my WordPress presentation, installation questions kicked off our discussion, but we eventually explored communications-related questions like, “Why should I publish anything on a blog?” “What would I write about?” And, “Who would read my blog?”
The website presentation generated discussion around taking collective action. I argued that a school website should harness the collective power of its school community to improve teaching and learning. We talked about the tools available to get this done as well as the focus required of the contributors to a school website. A big thank you to Brian Lockwood (his blog is How? What?) and Genki Unno (his blog is The Professional Student) for sharing their experience and knowledge with us.
The GIN ‘n Water presentation touched on all three — communicate, collaborate, collective action. We talked about the fascinating ways technologies can improve communications and collaborations and foster collective actions. Then we talked about how difficult it is to put all those pieces together.
In these presentations, I think all of us left with more questions than answers. In the good way, I hope.
Installing Your WordPress Blog (1st presentation)
Do dread and fear stop you from installing your own WordPress blog?
Want to discuss design with a WordPress theme designer?
Wondering about hosting and domain names?
Yes? Then this presentation is for you. It will include my own sound advice learned the hard way when I installed my WordPress blogs. And, if I can keep him awake in the USA, we’ll have the designer of my latest blog join us via Skype video.
The online discussion about this presentation.
Developing and Coordinating an Action-Oriented Website (2nd presentation)
Let’s look at how International School of Tianjin decided to CTRL+ALT+DELETE its old website and build a new one. And let’s look at the big tools they used to get the job done — finalsite’s web design and web software along with the 37signals project management and collaboration software, Basecamp.
The online discussion about this presentation.
Gin ‘n Water (3rd presentation)
See how secondary students at International School of Tianjin in Tianjin, China use collaborative technologies to support their EARCOS Global Issues Network initiative – accessible water in Gui’de, Qinghai (a province of the People’s Republic of China). This session will illustrate how students created a network to share ideas with other GIN participants in different parts of the world, facilitate collaborative solutions, and establish a foundation for sustainability.
