Parent Education Opportunity: Wednesday, September 9th at 5:00 pm Pacific

This live Internet broadcast on Wednesday, September 9th, 2009 looks like an excellent educational opportunity for parents, teachers and administrators. Jane Nelsen will be speaking on the topic of parenting in an age of the Internet and social networking. Participating in this event is super easy and only requires a computer connected to the Internet. Please spread the word and pass this link out to as many people as possible.

For more information on this event and for details on how to participate live, click here to visit the event info page at Conversations.net.

Thursday, Feb 5 Parent talk Update

This morning I gave a 30 minute talk regarding some of the new initiatives we have going on here at our school. The talk primarily focused on how we use Moodle as a virtual learning environment and we also talked about the Gator Radio Experience student run live radio project. Both projects align very closely with our school's new strategic plan which is titled, "Castilleja School...defining educational excellence for girls in the 21st century."

I feel bad that the talk went into overtime and that I didn't record the audio...I'll go back and record the audio along with the slides so folks who were unable to attend have the chance to listen in. Until that happens, here are a few links to resources that we talked about today:

1. Parents as Partners project - We have a blog and a Facebook group

2. Image from the Horizon Report

3. Gator Radio Experience Website/Blog and Gator Radio Experience on Twitter

4. Connect with Matt on Twitter or Facebook (or subscribe to this blog via RSS on the right or email subscription)

5. Casti's Moodle Virtual Learning Network

Thanks again to Martha and the CSA crew at Castilleja for inviting me to talk to the group today!

Listen to Parents as Partners with Steve Hargadon on Monday, April 14th!

Join us live tomorrow night (Monday, April 14th) at 9:00 PM EDT as Parents as Partners is joined by special guest, Steve Hargadon, to discuss web2.0 pedagogies in schools and best practices for educating parents about these tools. You can participate in tomorrow's webcast by listening along and by entering the chatroom at http://edtechtalk.com/live. Please spread the word and encourage parents from your school to join in as well. This is a great parent education opportunity for parents in your school and community!

If you can't join us live for the conversation with Steve, know that this will be archived online as a podcast at the Parents as Partners page on edtechtalk.com (you'll see past episodes posted online as well).

Please take a moment to join our Parents as Partners group on Facebook. You will need a Facebook account to join the group. This Facebook group centers around the theme of supporting students in the 21st century. Encourage other school parents to join as well!

Hope to "see" you online tomorrow for the Parents as Partners webcast!

*Photo courtesy of Leonid Mamchenkov on flickr (Creative Commons)

Parent Web2.0 Study Group Meeting #2 Reflection

Our second parent study group session took place this past Friday at the Mequon Library. We were lucky enough to be joined by USM parent, Anne Reed, who shared her story about how she joined the "Blogosphere" and the "read/write" web. We had 12 parents join us in person for the conversation, and another 2-3 parents joined in virtually via the ustream broadcast as well (I've embedded the recording from ustream at the end of the post).

I have several take-aways that I'd like to highlight in this post. I'm also dropping in as many links as I can from our conversation for parent follow up.

Take-aways:
1. "I can tell you that as an adult, knowing how to use these tools is highly valued." This is a paraphrase of one of Anne's comments near the end of her talk, but it really struck me. Anne shared her blog, her facebook profile and the blogs of some other individuals in her network. She shared a tool on her facebook profile that allows visitors the opportunity to donate to the Meta House, which is an organization dedicated to providing assistance to women in the Milwaukee area who are battling substance abuse issues. So often we get caught up in the hype of the negative aspects of social networking...here is an incredibly powerful example of a positive way to utilize these tools.

2. A blog is a powerful tool that supports creativity. Anne mentioned that her blog is a creative professional tool. I feel the exact same way.

3. Start a blog and you'll be invited to speak in Japan! This is what happened to Anne. She was contacted by some folks in Japan to give a talk about some changes that they're making in their legal system. I know of at least one other person who has been contacted for a speaking engagement as a result of their blog. I was actually contacted not too long ago about a potential consulting opportunity as well, but at this point the arrangement isn't firm. While you may not be invited to speak at a conference half-way around the world as a result of your blog, there is a high probability that there will be a few positive unanticipated consequences as a result of your engagement in the "blogosphere."

4. Anne's transformation from a skeptic to a creative user of these tools is a story that I'm quite familiar with. Her story is quite similar to mine and other peers in my professional network. I believe most adults will move through a similar path as they develop in their understanding of these new participatory media tools.

5. Anne is clearly a wonderful writer. Her blog posts are incredibly well written and I'm jealous of her ability to write short, succinct and powerful posts. However, I'm a firm believer that we can all participate even if we don't currently possess Anne's skills. A blog is a wonderful tool for writers of all abilities to hone their writing skills and find their voice.

6. My final take-away is that the parents in this study group are AWESOME! I was really impressed with the high quality conversations that we had on Friday. I think the group is incredibly supportive of one another as we all grapple with the challenges of parenting in the 21st century.

Resource Links:

• Anne Reed's blog, "Deliberations."
• Follow Matt Montagne on Twitter
• Will Piper's blog
• Matt Montagne's Blog
• Parents as Partners Webcast Archives
• Recent NY Times article on internet safety and kids
• Google Reader-this is the tool that both Anne and I use to more efficiently manage the blogs and news sources that we subscribe to. Set up a google reader account and subscribe to a few blogs and news feeds.

Awesome videos that explain things like blogs, wikis and RSS. These are all very short videos:
1. Blogs in Plain English
2. Wikis in Plain English
3. RSS in Plain English
4. Twitter in Plain English (this just came out TODAY!!)

Video recording of our conversation with Anne:

USM Parent to Present to Parent Study Group on February 29th!

Join us live via Ustream as school parent, Anne Reed, joins us at the Mequon Public Library to talk about her transformation from that of a Web 2.0 skeptic to that of an active blogger and user of social network tools in her career as an attorney.

The talk will begin about 10:10 CST her in Wisconsin (4:10 PM UTC/GMT) on Friday, February 29th. Click here to find the time in your time zone.

The link to the live video/audio feed may be accessed here. We will also have a chat room so you'll be able to participate in that manner as well.

We hope you can join us for this exciting presentation!

Upcoming Parent Education Events

We have two interesting parent education opportunities taking place during the week of February 25th. I blogged about the "Parents as Partners" webcast earlier today in a previous post. This will be a great opportunity for parents to listen in to a conversation about participatory media tools and the classroom. Blogs, wikis, and many other tools are being used more and more in our classrooms. Join us tomorrow as we talk about effective ways that these tools are being used in the classroom.

The second exciting opportunity is taking place on Friday, February 29th at 16:00 GMT (10:00 am EST). Members of the Middle School "Web2.0" parent study group have the good fortune of being joined by Anne Reed, USM Parent, who will be speaking with us about how she uses participatory media tools in her career as an attorney. Anne's story is really quite interesting, so we're hopeful that you're able to join us at the Mequon public library this coming Friday. If you're not able to join us, we are most likely going to live broadcast the audio and video from the talk so you'll be able to watch from your office or home location. The link to the live broadcast will be posted on this blog and emailed out to parents on Thursday night. If you will be joining us in person at the Mequon Public Library this coming Friday, please be sure to RSVP by visiting the Middle School Web2.0 Parent Study Group at the link below. You may RSVP by clicking "Edit this Page" and entering your name on the page.

Blog Post Notes:

1. Anne Reed being interviewed on the Lake Effect this past November. Be sure to click the audio player that says, "Jury Blogging."
2. Middle School Web2.0 Parent Study Group
3. Parents as Partners Website
   

Parents as Partners Tonight!

Lorna Costantini will be moderating tonight's "Parents as Partners" conversation at GMT 1:30 am (8:30 pm EST in Canada/USA). The focus of the conversation will be social networking and parenting in a web 2.0 world. I'll be joining the conversation to talk about some of the parent education opportunities we're offering here at USM. Cindy Zautcke, USM parent, will be joining in the conversation to share her experiences with her three children and parenting in the web 2.0 world. We'll also be joined by Rhoda Cipparone, parent and community rep on the Niagara Catholic Regional School Council, who will share her experiences in this area as well. I'm really looking forward to the talk tonight with Lorna, Rhoda and Cindy. Social media and schools is a topic that I thoroughly enjoy talking about and it should be an interesting webcast.

To access the talk, you'll go to the Webcast Academy's "Live" page and click on one of the media players in Sandbox A. Follow the directions at the "Parents as Partners" page for a more detailed description of this process. We'll be using one of the World Bridges chat rooms, but at this point I'm not certain which one it will be. We will be sure to announce the chat room at the throughout the webcast.

Parent Ed - Web 2.0 Study Group Meeting #1 Summary

Even with a nasty Wisconsin snow storm brewing, we still managed to have four hearty souls join us for this ongoing study group experience for our parents! A few additional parents listened in to the conversation from home via a live ustream broadcast (the broadcast has been archived and is available online).

I was seriously considering postponing due to weather, but as it turned out the drive home really wasn't that bad at all. And I'm glad we didn't cancel, because I enjoyed the conversation that was started last night. We have such a sharp group of folks assembled for this study group experience. While everyone last night shared a different set of goals for their participation, it was clear that everyone is eager to roll up their sleeves and personally engage in this new landscape. During our first class meeting we skyped with Vinnie Vrotny and our partner school for this project, North Shore County Day School, to do a little meet and greet exchange. We also spoke with Lorna Costantini, a parent involvement leader from St. Catherine's Ontario (Canada). Lorna will be working with be learning along with us and it was nice for everyone to have the opportunity to hear from her. As a side note, Lorna and I are looking for parents who are interested in joining us on upcoming editions of a live webcast show, "Parents as Partners." Please contact Lorna or myself if you are interested in joining us on an upcoming show. I'm thrilled to be working with this study group and I'm looking forward to learning and sharing throughout this experience.

At this point it looks like we are tentatively scheduling our next face to face meeting time for Friday, February 29th from 10:00 am - noon at the Mequon library. We hope to have school parent, Anne Reed, join us to talk about how she uses some of these 21st century tools in her career as an attorney. We'll also have a little "lab time" after Anne's talk, so be sure to bring your laptop computer along if you have one. Listen to a recording of Anne on the Lake Effect show from the Fall of 2007 as she talks about jury selection in the 21st century landscape (scroll down and click the media player that says, "Jury Blogging.")

In the event that any parents are reading this from our group, remember that you have two assignments:

#1 - Leave a comment (text comment, audio comment, or a video comment) about your goals for this experience on the voicethread that I started.

#2 - Join the North Shore Country Day online learning community at moodle. Vinnie created a brief screencast that leads you through the process of joining this community. When you are there, be sure to join both the "Growing Up Wired" course and the "Gaining Digital Citizenship" course (the digital citizenship course is from North Shore's study group experience from last year).

Photo courtesy of Thomas Hawk on flickr (photo is licensed in the Creative Commons for non-commercial use)

Parent Education - Parent Web2.0 Study Group

I'm really looking forward to the first face-to-face meeting for our Middle School parent web2.0 study group this Tuesday, February 5th at 6:30 pm. I think this is going to be a wonderful opportunity for our parents to roll up their sleeves and explore the world of the "Read/Write" web. To quote Will Richardson in his excellent book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, "There is no better way to understand the impact of the Read/Write Web than becoming part of it." From my pre-service days at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I've always been a big believer in the concepts of "learn by doing" and constructivist teaching and learning. This learning experience for our parents is going to be highly constructivist with different parents engaging in different ways based upon their unique interests and background knowledge. Over the course of the next few months we'll meet face-to-face, virtually via tools like Wimba, and we'll have asynchronous homework assignments to reflect upon.

Another interesting component of this study group that I'm anticipating is that we are linking up with a similar study group being led by Vinnie Vrotny down at North Shore Country Day in Winnetka, IL. We hope to use Vinnie's Moodle system as the central launching point for our work with everyone carving out their own unique learning path from here.

We're looking for guests to join us to share their experiences in the world of web2.0 tools (either professionally, personally, or both) with our group. Joining us via skype, wimba, etc are all possibilities. Please let me know if you'd be interested in speaking with us and/or sitting in on our sessions.

Ustream.tv to the Rescue

What do you get one you mix really bad weather, another canceled Washington DC Trip organizational meeting for the parents, a creative/energetic history teacher, and a little ustream.tv action? You get a live broadcast by US History teacher extraordinaire, Chuck Taft, to the 8th grade parents via ustream.tv. With all after school activities canceled tonight on account of the weather, Chuck was looking for a way to get the information out to the parents. This was the second time this year that the Washington DC overview for the parents had to be canceled due to inclement weather. Chuck decided to send an email out to the parents with a link to the live ustream feed. At 1:45 CST today Chuck began his broadcast and presentation. He shared a little powerpoint and fielded parent questions submitted via the chat from the viewers. Chuck had 20 parents join in the ustream session, which is nearly 25% of our 8th grade parents. He also saved the recording and will post it on his website/blog for parents who were unable to view the broadcast live. Chuck did a great job of making soup out of stones today with his live broadcast! Way to go, Chuck!

Parent Ed Event-Growing Up Online

Last night I met three other parents online in a skype chat session to discuss the PBS Frontline special, "Growing Up Online." Two of the parents were from USM (the school I work at) and we were also joined by Lorna Costantini, a parent/parent coordinator from a school in St. Catherines, Ontario. Lorna is someone who I recently met online and we're participating in the Webcast Academy 2.4 class together. I must say that it was nice to be able to think aloud and process this event collaboratively with the other chat participants. I also really enjoyed the experience of watching this alongside three other parents as I'm not a parent myself-it was great to get their perspective and hear their voice on this issue.

I'm amazed at what we've managed to do at USM over the last few months. At the beginning of the year I never would've even thought of conducting a parent education session through a live chat. While this experience wasn't perfect (one of the parents commented that it was difficult to follow the program and chat at the same time-I agree) it certainly opens the doors for some different ways of thinking about parent education with the ultimate goal of including more parents in the conversation.

By the way, this wasn't broadcast in Lorna's area in Ontario so I ustreamed it to her. Included in this post is a screenshot that Lorna took while watching the ustream feed and participating in the chat. It was nice to be able to do this so she could follow along and engage in the conversation live with us.

By the way, if you didn't get to see Growing Up Online last night on TV, it is available for viewing online any time via the PBS website. The Washington Post held a chat on Thursday morning with the producers of the segment. The chat log may be pursed online here (some really interesting questions/answers in the chat).