I have been working for the last few months on an exciting project that is launching today.

The P2PU School of Ed pilot opened sign-up today for seven free, online, open-licensed professional development courses for K-12 teachers.

This program is about peer learning, openness, and deeper learning. It’s hands-on learning driven by each educator’s particular needs and classroom situations. It’s about connecting, collaborating, and creating, not just reading or studying.

These courses are all open licensed under a CC BY license, which means anyone can repurpose the content for whatever purpose they like as long as they attribute the source.

Here are the courses now open for sign-up:

• Differentiating Instruction - description, sign-up open until Sept. 19 (click PARTICIPATE to apply)
• Student Engagement - description, sign-up open until Sept. 12 (click PARTICIPATE to apply)
• OER in the K-12 Classroom - description, sign-up open until Sept. 19 (click PARTICIPATE to apply)
• Teaching in Online and Blended Classrooms - description, sign-up open until Sept. 12 (click PARTICIPATE to apply)
• Multimedia and Graphics to Facilitate Deeper Learning - description, sign-up open until Oct. 3 (click PARTICIPATE to apply)
• Writing & Common Core: Deeper Learning for All - description, sign-up open until Sept. 26 (click PARTICIPATE to apply)
• Using Web 2.0 and Social Media to Encourage Deeper Learning - description, sign-up open until Sept 19 (click PARTICIPATE to apply)

One of the challenges of Web 2.0 apps is that there are frequent changes to the business models, often resulting in services that were originally free going to a pay-per model or sometimes going away altogether. I understand that everyone needs to be self-sustaining, but it’s a challenge for schools using these tools. (This is one of the reasons I love open source software — you know it’s always going to be free.)

This recently happened with two tools I use. One is Gabcast, which used to be free, but now has a time limit of 4 minutes as a free trial plan. In looking for another free tool to do phonecasting (recording audio from a phone and posting it directly to your blog of podcast), I haven’t quite find one that fits the bill. I tried phonecasting.com but had some challenges getting it set up. I’m still looking into a few other options, so stay tuned. (drop.io allows you to record files by phone but is lacking some other useful features. It is really intended as a broader file sharing tool, rather than just a phonecasting app.) If you have an app for this you like, please let me know.

I also used a web site for checking for plagiarism that was free but now charges. In looking for alternatives, I found The Plagiarism Checker from the University of Maryland, which looks good. They also offer a premium version for a fee, but the basic one worked fine for me. (I tested out others as well, but they seemed to think everything written at a high level was plagiarized, even original work of my own.) I have not used this application extensively, but in trying it out, it seemed to work well.  I also looked for open source alternatives, but didn’t find any.

If you have your own favorites in these categories, please add a comment and let us know.

It’s surprising to me that in 2010, there are still big districts that are blocking all Web 2.0 apps — wikis, blogs, etc.  These are some of the most powerful tools we have for differentiating instruction.

I have to think these decisions are being made by people who aren’t in charge of instruction and who are mainly motivated by wanting “no problems.” (And as I always say, if you want no problems, just pack the computers away or don’t even by them.) I restate my offer here to talk to leadership teams at these districts about the benefits of these tools and the ways they can be implemented safely. Please let our teaches and students have the tools they need for 21st century learning!

Are whole categories of tools blocked in your district? Do you know who is driving policy on this? Have efforts been made to revisit these policies? What are the barriers?

I don’t know why I didn’t do this a long time ago, but I have just created annotated tag sets for two of my workshops (I guess I get the “bookmarking” part of social bookmarking, but sometimes forget about the “social” part.):

Web 2.0 — All You Can Eat Buffet
Using Open educational resources – Share, Remix, Learn

I already do wikis for all my workshop, and tag sets are another logical step of going to all-electronic workshop materials. Both of these tools are also a nice way to continue to deliver new info long after the workshops are over and to share with a wider audience.

Find more videos like this on Classroom 2.0

There are so many great technology tools…wikis, blogs, Google docs, podcasts, Moodle sites, VoiceThread, and on and on. Sometimes it’s difficult to know which tool to use for a given project or activity.

The best way to approach this problem is to always start with the question “What are the instructional goals?” and then to think about how to accomplish those goals. Sometimes the answer will be technology; other times it may be paper-and-pencil, f2f group discussion, or something else.

Here is a grid that outlines the main differences between things like wikis, blogs, document sharing, etc. with some thoughts on which are best suited to different classroom activities.

If you have your own tips to share about how you choose which tool to use for different activities, post your thoughts here to share with others.

I recently evaluated some of the online graphic organizers available. The results are here. Different projects and student groups have different needs, so you’ll want to evaluate them for your own purposes.

Please post a comment here or on the wiki if there are other online graphic organizers you’ve tried and liked.

We had a great time at the Web 2.0 All-You-Can-Eat Buffet workshop in San Antonio.

All of the resources we shared are available for anyone to access, share, and use in any setting in the Web 2.0 All-You-Can-Eat Buffet wiki.

Here is the “roadmap” and some quick start guides for the workshop.

Enjoy!

Over the past year, I have been working on strategies for differentiating PD. I am more convinced than ever that a great way to provide meaningful, hands-on, inquiry-driven PD is with a wiki and a “road map” that lets people work at their own level. I am trying to do less and less presentation at my workshops. I sometimes get a few comments from people who prefer a slower, step-by-step walk-through of each thing we’re doing, but most people like what I think is a more authentic and meaningful approach to PD. Here are some comments people have made about this:

“I liked being able to work at my own pace. ”

“[The wiki] was great! Everything you need to know or to have for review will be available in one easy location anytime I want it!”

“Great hands on approach. I learn best when I can do it myself.”

“These kinds of topics need time for exploration and right-at-the-time questions.”

“I liked the break up of overview and hands on. This allowed participants to play and ask questions when needed.”

“Great balance and I did not feel guilty when I was working on the laptop.” [Presenter's notes: I didn't see anyone doing email or other "off-task" things during the copious hands-on time. This made me feel good!]

I was doing a Web 2.0 workshop last week and brought up Photoshop Express, the new, free, online photo editor. Imagine my delight when I saw the new resizing tool — this was the one feature I thought this tool was really missing! I shrieked with glee upon see it.

This brought up one of the great things about Web 2.0 tools — they are not constrained in the way that traditional boxed software is. They can add features, respond to user comments, and evolve as necessary, even daily. (In the old days of software, we had to wait until those 25,000 CDs were gone before we could update things.) And that is just what we are seeing in tools like Photoshop Express, the Google tool suite, and others.

Of course, this can be challenging in terms of staying up-t0-date, especially for those who are offering professional development. It is making printed user manuals a thing of the past and wiki-driven PD a must. But I like wikis better anyway, so I say, bring on the change!

Here is an awesome new wiki WebTools4u2use about Web 2.0 tools produced by my good friend Donna Baumbach.

Also, in preparing for my own upcoming workshops Web 2.0 All You Can Eat Buffet, I’ve had a lot of fun playing with many new Web 2.0 tools. Here’s a sample project I created with VoiceThread. Please join in and add your comments (text, voice, video) about events in our nation’s recent history.