NCTIES 2010: Eliminating Writer's Block

NCTIES is always a much anticipated conference each year by North Carolinians who share a common thread and interest in education and instructional technology. This year, that excitement and anticipation was proven with a 40% increase in participant attendance!

There were several sessions I attended… The first being my own! My session stemmed from my true passion for writing coupled with educational technology in the classroom. “Writing Across the Curriculum: Utilizing Web 2.0 Tools to Increase Writing Skills in the K-12 Classroom” was designed with a specific goal in mind….. To Get Students Excited About Writing!

It is my personal belief that ALL students have an active imagination, are creative and CAN express themselves. But, just as some folks shy away from Math or History, we also have those students who quickly shy away from self expression through writing. My hope in presenting this session was to offer teachers new inspirational tools that would allow students the opportunity to write without simply being given a pencil and paper and hearing “go for it”!

My session structure was based on specific curriculum ideas and examples from the NCSCOS. To eliminate writer's block, a structured plan for beginning/completing the writing process should be given to the students. Check out some of these resources, which like all 21^st century tools can be great and highly successful with customization and creativity geared towards your specific area…

Instant and Engaging Discussion:

http://etherpad.com/

http://www.scrumy.com/

http://www.quicktopic.com/

Brainstorming:

http://www.text2mindmap.com/

http://bubbl.us/

http://www.gliffy.com/

Forming Content:

http://www.storyjumper.com/

http://storybird.com/

http://writeonwsfcs.pbworks.com/

http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/

Writing Prompts: (quite a few….) Did I mention, writing prompts make my heart go pitter patter!!! Great way to get creativity and the brain going for students!!!!

http://writingacrossthecurriculum.pbworks.com/Writing-Prompts

Image Journaling:

http://writingacrossthecurriculum.pbworks.com/Image-Journaling

http://writingacrossthecurriculum.pbworks.com/f/imagejournalquestions.pdf

Now… I did get a chance to visit some other sessions that were really great…. Check out the NCTIES wiki for resource posts from the various conference speakers. http://2010ncties.pbworks.com/ Want to go next year? Plans are already underway… stay tuned. Oh, and one other thing… I walked away from this year’s NCTIES conference with a brand new appreciation (all over again) for Twitter. Smile.

http://writingacrossthecurriculum.pbworks.com/ is a wiki created simply to house the links used within my NCTIES session discussion.

Communicate, Collaborate, Connect

Last week, I had the privilege of attending the 2009 NCTIES conference in Raleigh, North Carolina. NCTIES is the acronym for North Carolina Technology in Education Society. “The mission of NCTIES is to provide leadership in educational communications and technology by linking all who hold a common interest in the use of educational technology and its application to the learning process.”

The tagline used by NCTIES gives pause for reflection… Communicate, Collaborate, Connect. In this, the 21st Century, those words are powerful. Let’s look at each one individually and then collectively.

According to Webster, their definitions are as follows…

--
Communicate: to convey knowledge of or information about; make known

Collaborate: to work jointly with others or together especially in an intellectual endeavor

Connect: to become joined; to place or establish in relationship
--

Collectively, those three words can easily be used to shape and define the skills that are developed through the use of 21st Century classroom initiatives! What comes into play?

· Telecommunications (Skype, Twitter, etc.)
· Global Communities (Quest Atlantis, ePals, etc.)
· Wikis (PBwiki)
· Blogs (Blogger)
· Shared Documents (Google Docs)
· RSS Readers (Google Reader)
· Social Bookmarking (Delicious)
· Moodle
· Video-Conferencing
· The list goes on and on….

How will you communicate? How will you collaborate? How will you connect? The tools are already in place – just add creativity. Your students will appreciate it.