Learning on a stick Minnesota style
May 12th, 2008 | by Tim Wilson |At the most recent meeting of the Minnesota Education Media Organization Technology Special Interest Division (I couldn’t resist writing that out) I learned about a cool professional development opportunity called 23 Things On a Stick. Curious about the name? If you’ve visited the Minnesota State Fair you’d know how we in Minnesota love things on a stick.
The 23 Things… program is a largely self-paced set of tutorials intended for teachers and library folks in Minnesota who want to learn more about Web 2.0 tools. The “Things” include RSS, photosharing, collaboration, social media, online productivity, online gaming, podcasts, video, and social networking. Each participant is required to maintain a blog for the duration of the project to foster reflection and interaction with other participants.
I’d like to see someone turn the 23 Things program into a Moodle course that can be distributed to any school that is using Moodle for professional development. (”23 Things On a Stick” is made available under an Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike Creative Commons license.) Any takers?
Tags: 23 things on a stick, moodle, Professional Development, web 2.0
12 Responses to “Learning on a stick Minnesota style”
By M. Walker on May 12, 2008 | Reply
Tim,
I’m running a 23 Things group this summer in Edina.
I was trying to decide between using the official site, or making a wiki, with a place for people to enter info about each topic.
I’ve got 7 people signed up so far.
I might be up for moving it to Moodle.
It’s registered in our Keep Certified site now, and if TIES finalizes purchase, maybe Osseo or Buffalo folks could sign up there.
Let me know…
By Tim Wilson on May 12, 2008 | Reply
Mike,
What I like about the Moodle idea is that it would be possible to export the course and redistribute to anyone who’s running Moodle.
-Tim
By Marla Hall on May 19, 2008 | Reply
My teachers and students are bored and no longer challenged with all our favorite websites. Web 2.0 is exactly what we need to make the next leap – that shot in the arm – to engage us and excite us to learn and contribute. Next is the shift our technology dept. has to make to support us as we strive to move ahead. 23 Things is an awesome opportunity for teachers to come to understand all the new possibilities.
By Laurie on Jun 16, 2008 | Reply
Hi Tim,
I did 23 things on a stick this spring and loved it! We are working on a way to use it with students in one of our 6th grade classrooms in Osseo this year. I’m also moodling this summer (getting training on it that is)I’d love to try the idea of moving something like it to Moodle – good topic for my training next week.
Laurie
By Chris on Jul 11, 2008 | Reply
Oh wow! Oh wow! Oh wow! The 23 things on a stick idea is exciting for this Web 2.0 newbie! I am at the technosavvy site as part of a Web 2.0 class I am taking; can’t wait to explore the possibilities!
By M. Walker on Jul 21, 2008 | Reply
Tim,
I decided to use Netvibes as a portal for the 23 things project in Edina. As the teacher, I could pull the feed from each student’s blog, and then comment right from within Netvibes. The participants could see other blogs that way as well.
It made the posts a bit more open than going through Moodle, and we even had someone from New York comment on one of my student’s blog posts. That made it more authentic to me than running it through Moodle, plus it allowed the participants to sign up on the “official” site.
By M. Walker on Jul 21, 2008 | Reply
Here’s the site I made for it: http://www.netvibes.com/micwalker#23_Things_on_a_Stick
By Tim Wilson on Jul 21, 2008 | Reply
Mike, that’s pretty cool. I hadn’t thought to use Netvibes.
By Shelley Paul on Jul 21, 2008 | Reply
Somewhere around 300 library systems have adopted and adapted the original ‘23 Things’ program from Helene Blowers (she is amazing!). With her permission, I heavily reworked the model for classroom teachers, producing a K12 version delivered on a wiki, currently finishing its second go. I had thought about moving into Ning, but the portability of a Moodle version would be awesome. Not a big fan of Moodle blog function, though…
By Tim Wilson on Jul 21, 2008 | Reply
Shelley, I don’t think much of Moodle’s blog either. It doesn’t seem to work like you’d think a blog should work, but I know the designers are probably thinking of Moodle blogging from a slightly different perspective than a traditional blog. (Did I just use the word “traditional” in reference to a blog. My how far we’ve come.)
I still think a Moodle verson of 23 Things would be great, especially as an official professional development opportunity in my district.
By www.quranreading.com on Jan 1, 2009 | Reply
Hi,
I love educational blogs.23 things project is nice approach.But i am in tension about Schooling system.How to improve it.I will see your model idea.
By Shelley Paul on Feb 1, 2009 | Reply
The Georgia State ETC system (tech training for teachers in the state) has taken my version of the 2.0 course and adapted it for delivery in Moodle (http://moodle.ksuettc.org). They offered it at four locations last Fall and are gearing up for a second go. I think it has worked well for a platform, but one problem is that the course needs constant revision and by moving out of a wiki, you lose ease of updating on the fly. Once they’ve been given the original course file, each center has been on its own to make updates — maybe I don’t know enough about Moodle… can you overlay a new version of a course while it’s active? Otherwise, you’re always outdated or lots of redundant work…