Why does tech matter to you?

Welcome to Technology Matters.

If you're looking for a way to get started, here are some options:

First, if you haven't already done so, log in.
Once you have logged in, create your bio.
Read over the existing documentation on the wiki pages.
If are in a group, click on your Group, then follow the directions and Create a Blog posting in response to the prompts that you will find there.

Who is on TTT tonight?

Joining us from West Coast tonight are four Writing Project teachers who have worked together before. Bob LeVin, from Florin High School in Elk Grove, California and Matt Makowetski, from Lompoc Maple Continuation, in California -- whose students will be joining us soon on YouthVoices.net -- first worked together on a collaborative blogging project a couple of years ago, Enrique's Journey. Gail Desler will also be contributing her thoughts. She is a teacher and technology support specialist for the Elk Grove School District. Gail, a technology liaison to the National Writing Project and the North State Coordinator for the LINC Center, has been instrumental in helping to coordinate the West Coast crew. In addition, Beth Yeager the director of the LINC Center and a teacher consultant for the South Coast Writing Project will bring her perspective to the table.

Lorraine Nowlin and Madeline Brownstone and Renee Dryg from the New York City Writing Project plan to come by as well. And we're trying to hook up with Bill O'Neal from the Trenton Writing Project as well.

Bill O'Neal at TCHS West, NJ
youthvoices.net/elgg/mistero/

Who am I?

I am Bill O'Neal, teacher of English at Trenton High School West. I am also a semi-professional folksinger/guitarist. My undergraduate degree is in Philosophy; my graduate work was in English Education. I am current president of The Friends of the William Green Farmhouse (www.williamgreenhouse.org) and an active member of the Ewing Township Historic Society. I am tech liaison to the Trenton Area Writing Project. I also maintain their website and the Trenton High West one as well. My wife and I lown and live in one of the historic homes of Lawrence Township, an 1800 Federal house known as The Israel Stevens House, which is on the local, state and national registers of historic places.

Last Year's Blogging Projects

Welcome to Youth Voices Coast to Valley to Coast (2005-06)

This site can be accessed by teacher and student editors only. Editors can login here.

This statement of purpose is a work in progress. Our participating editors are free to edit and revise as we proceed with the work.

The Bay Area Writing Project (BAWP), the California Writing Project (CWP) and the Center for Education Research on Literacy and Inquiry in Networking Communities (LINC) are sponsoring a 2005-2006 cross-state, cross-Writing Project blog / videoconference initiative designed to use technology as a tool for teachers' wide range of student writers. Initiated by BAWP, the Youth Voices project draws on earlier work by teachers and students in several state-wide networking communities within the history/social science/literacy strand of the LINC Center (Always Running, Hidden Histories, and Enrique's Journey) as well as on work produced through the CWP's California Stories intiative. Writing Project technology liaisons from the BAWP and the Area 3 Writing Project, with members of the LINC Center (supported by the South Coast Writing Project and the National Writing Project), are working with high school teacher leaders and their classes to develop an online, virtual community of writers investigating CWP selected themes that invovlve researching and writing in "real" ways for "real" reasons. These activities are NOT designed to be add-on’s to our already over-packed curriculum, but rather opportunities to take standards-based instruction and provide students with authentic audiences and purposes for writing.
Joel Arquillos and Michael Rosenberg collaborate in San Francisco USD, at Galileo Academy and Balboa High. Bob LeVin (Elk Grove, Florin High School) and Matt Makowetski (Lompoc Maple Continuation) know each other through last year’s Enrique’s Journey blog. Matt and Mindy Chiang (Galileo Academy) met each other in Santa Barbara this summer during the LINC Center's August Teacher Institute . Brooke Nicolls teaches at Grant High School in Sacramento. Pat Delaney is Galileo's librarian and a technology coordinatory for the National Writing Project. Gail Desler is a teacher and technology support specialist for the Elk Grove School District. She is also a technology liaison to the National Writing Project and the North State Coordinator for the LINC Center. Beth Yeager is the director of the LINC Center and is a teacher consultant for the South Coast Writing Project.
The Youth Voices Coast to Valley to Coast project draws on curriculum design models that build on the principles of the CWP and NWP and on those developed by the LINC Center working with K-12 teachers. That’s why the kinds of activities we plan aren’t simply ‘add-ons' or ‘drop-ins'. They’re also not ‘top-down' models. We have common principles of practice that guide this learning community (of which we’re all members). Teachers, CWP technology liaisons, curriculum consultants, such as those at the LINC Center, and students plan collaboratively for activities that will be embedded over time in everyday classroom life.

We believe that one way for students to have opportunities to think and write about complex issues that matter to them is to find ways for us and them to interact with and learn from the lived experiences of others, in the places and spaces where they and we live and work. Our first draft curriulum plan calls for students to investigate their own communities by taking photos or video footage of those communities. These will be exported into a PowerPoint or iMovie presentation format. Students will share their findings and present their communities to each other as well as to other community members in a videoconference using CA K12 HSN's conferencing facilities. This presentation will be an initial step in creating one virtual, networking community of writers from multiple communities, as well as the first step toward creating a “publishable„1¤7 piece (essay, podCast or video) based on this year's CWP's recommended themes:

Growing up and finding our identity in a changing California
Understanding how our community, history, and heritage have shaped who we are as Californians
Examining the realities and challenges of life in California
Dreaming of a better life in California, as newcomers or long-time residents.
Throughout the project, students post to this password-protected weblog. Postings are grouped around six California topic areas:

Current Events - Choose an article from a newspaper or blog and summarize the main idea. Tell why YOU think the event is significant.
Diversity Issues - Talk about how diversity affects your life, your community and your growth as a person.
Media Awareness - How does the media affect the way you think and see the world? What are the most poweful media forces influencing people today?
Neighborhood Issues - Describe your neighborhood and include the good, the bad and what makes it unique or boring. Tell us about an event happening in your 'hood'.
Reviews and Opinions - Review a film, new CD, book, magazine, skateboard, mall, restaurant, website, zine, TV show, etc...
School Issues - What are some of the issues that concern YOU about your school? Why are these issues important? Can they be fixed? How?
Between the videoconference, the blog posting, and final publications, the project will document the impact that coming together as an online community has on students„1¤7 writing.

Elgg Plans

Check out our new wikispace.

Welcome! Here are some of the places in our communities. These are our Entry Points.

Find our Guidelines for Joining below.
CommunityWalk Map - Personal Learning Maps - Entry Points

Guidelines for Joining YouthVoices.net or the PersonalLearningSpace.com

We are glad to have teachers and students join our network to begin blogging with us!

There are a few things you need to know:

1. Please have all students register using the following format:
first name or first name and first initial of last name at initials of school, city, state

so an example would be ThomasP at TCHS West, Trenton, NJ or Thomas at TCHS West, Trenton, NJ

We specifically ask that all schools follow this format to make it very clear who a student is communicating with in the elgg. Thank you!

For adults, you could use either your name as you have it or your first and last name and then please use the same school identification.

2. Next we ask that everyone fills out a profile. One important reason is that as soon as students enter likes and dislikes, interests, favorite books and authors and illustrators, they find other students with shared interests. Most of us (teachers) have required 5-50 entries in each category in the profile (depending on the category!). This way, students connect in a meaningful way easily. They really like this feature and it teaches them about networking online and databases (since that's what makes it work!)

3. We ask that students and teachers do NOT post photographs of themselves. Please have your students remove photos. You will find a lesson plan for making avatars/icons below. If you would like to use it, feel free!

4. We are trying to share and develop elgg and blogging lessons together. Please feel free to use what we have posted and edit and add your own lessons!

5. We also ask that you are careful about using copyright free or creative commons photos in any elgg work. You can find a clear description of this at: http://docs.google.com/View.aspx?docid=ah5m9qjtkbwf_27mcjg27
You can find the whole blogging guide at the bottom of the page in the How Am I Doing? community in the elgg. To join a community you can click on one of us, see the communities that we belong to, click on the name of the community and in the upper right hand corner of the screen, click join the community.

A lot of conversation about working in the elgg takes place at our blog: http://www.teachersteachingteachers.org
Please visit and comment!

Please join and "practice" at the "teacher's elgg" at http://www.educationbridges.net

We are getting a lot of failed emails. If your students register with email addresses with typos or with email addresses that are no longer active, they will not get the email that allows them to make a password and get into the elgg. Are your students getting in?

Feel free to drop a note to us with questions! Welcome!

Language samples from students' blogs

Who am I?

Hello, my name is B. I love theater, I am the stage manager for the plays at my school. Which means I'm a boss. I have been doing theater all four years of HS, but have only been Stage manager for 2 and a half years. I love theater, its my place. I am also a co-editor in yearbook. This is my second year in yb, I wish I had done it all four years cause I really enjoy it. I live with my mom and sisters. My dad was killed four years ago in a drunk driving accident. RIP DADDY.

Who am I?

Dat gurl straight out da projects. Keepin' it gangsta 4 all my homies dat Rest In Peace. U already know dat I'm ballin' 4 real. People are gonna hate but guess wat it really doesn't matter!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who am I?

I am a smart educated african american women, who is determined to succeed in life. I am a senior at Florin High School.

Who am I?

What people need to know about B is that B is Puerto Rican, she has long curly brown hair, and she is slim and has hazel green eyes. She was born in Manhattan New York and she lives in the lower east side. She lived in Virginia for awhile one time for a year in the beginning of 5th grade, but it was just to quiet for her especially she missed her friends.
She's 13 and in the 8th grade and she love's to act maybe 1 day she will be an actress because boy can she act she is a drama queen. She spends most of her time hanging out with her friends and family or just shopping.
She is a Puerto Rican green eyed dyme she is a Jordan fanatic that is all she wears all day everyday. She loves pizza she may even turn into a pizza. She hates vegetables with an exception of broccoli and corn. She is a lover of bow wow and Chris brown as well.
Well that's about it for hope you like her!!!

Who am I?

Hey my name is Mercedes. I go to ERHS in Manhattan.

Who am I?

A.doesn't exactly know who she is. She's a different everyday, so far anyways...Who is She? She wonders that herself.

She is an an open minded person. She is open to things like religion, sexual prefrences, and explantions/reasons for people's behavoir. She is bisexual. Aside from feeling attracted to both genders, she doesn't put barriers on herself. She believes in liking a person for their personality not what physically makes them, Them.

She loves to read and considers herself a bookworm. She loves listening to metal because she feels like it's the type of music that relaxes her. This type of music makes her think more clearly.

She loves listening to people and problems they may have. She likes helping people with their problems whenever she can help. She is a genorous person who speaks the truth too often. The type of truth that might offend.

She loves writing poetry because she is able to show people who she is, and who she is becoming as days, weeks, months and years go by. She grows and develops every day, mentally and spiritually. Her opinions change drastically because all the information she gains every day. She is who she is and her literature says a little about who she is. Her life fuses poetry itself, like all others.