Techie Tuesday: All Aboard? Survey Results

Towards the end of January, I wrote an All Aboard? post asking for opinions on helping other teachers “see the power” of learning more about web 2.0 and creating their own PLN.  This post included a Poll Daddy survey of the following:

• Where would you suggest a teacher get involved first?
• What is your favorite PLN or Web 2.0 website for newcomers?
• What web 2.0 tools should a teacher not be without?
• List an activity you would include in a workshop for teachers.

Are you ready for the results?

Some interesting facts about this survey include the fact that all of the respondents took a little over 6 minutes to complete the survey and represented at least 5-8 countries.  The exact number of countries can’t be determined because three respondents were listed as an unknown location.

Here is the breakdown of the results:

• Where would you suggest a teacher get involved first?

  • Workshop x 3
  • Twitter x3
  • Other x 4
  • Blog
  • Forum

• What is your favorite PLN or Web 2.0 website for newcomers?

  • Del.icio.us
  • Classroom 2.0 x 3
  • Wordle
  • Sue Waters PLN sites x 5 Edublogger Personal Blog PLN Wiki Mobile Technology in TAFE
  • Don’t have one- difference for different participants
  • Michele Martin
  • Tech4Learning Connect

• What web 2.0 tools should a teacher not be without?

  • Del.icio.us
  • Diigo
  • Twitter
  • Digital Camera
  • Blogs:  example – Edublogs
  • Google:  igoogle, google docs, google earth, etc.
  • Voice Thread
  • Skype
  • Virtual Classroom:  example – DiscoverE
  • Wikis:  example – wikispaces
  • Forums
  • ask500people
  • Audacity
  • Notaland
  • Prezi
  • Photo storing and sharing:  example – flickr, animoto, bubblr
  • Podcasting:  example – audacity, podomatic
  • WordPress
  • PBwiki
  • Screencasts
  • Ning
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • RSS reader:  example- google reader
  • Zoho

• List an activity you would include in a workshop for teachers. For these responses, I copied their ideas below.

  • Activity 1:  Pass out or take out your digital camera. Ask participants to form into small groups and give them a simple photography assignment. Give them fifteen minutes to go take the photos and then report back. I’ve done this, you can’t get them back in the room! They laugh, they have fun, they run all over (we took over the hotel lobby where I was doing the workshop!) and they learn how energizing, interactive and useful it can be to use digital photography and visual literacy in the classroom.
  • Activity 2:  Voicethread…learn how to develop one and try it out with students. Share it with parents.
  • Activity 3:  Create and add to a collaborative wiki. (suggested by two survey participants)
  • Activity 4:  I have never done this, but I just think it is the greatest idea.  I can’t remember where I learned it from- giving out your twitter name and mobilenumber and getting delegates to text your twitter account with instant feedback throughout the day.
  • Activity 5:  Start a blog with a local topic flavour.  Get them to begin posting and commenting before they leave. Then show them examples of educational blogs that are in use.
  • Activity 6:  Live interaction with others worldwide – eg through Twitter, Skype or virtual room
  • Activity 7:  Use blogs and wikis for teaching
  • Activity 8:  I would literally walk participants through setting up a blog and writing a post so that they could see how easy it is.
  • Activity 9:  Voicethread – find up to 3 images (use creative commons search if that doesn’t make it too difficult) and use it to describe a belief that you have about how students learn. Include text and voice recording. Invite someone in the room to make a comment on your voicethread. (Or, a small group could create a joint Voicethread of their main beliefs.)
  • Activity 10:  Form small ‘creative clusters’ so that people join with a friend or two to practice something new like Delicious or Google Docs. The biggest impact activity we have done recently is to Skype in another educator to join the chat.
  • Activity 11:  Just Tweet:)

  
  
  What does this tell me?
  First, I want to visit some of these sites that I haven’t incorporated.  I have checked out a few, and they were blocked by our Smartfilter:( Second, I should have found a way to incorporate “other” with a place to type the “other”.  I wonder if those three people in question on were referring to the same great place, and I just missed out on it.
  I’m really glad that “workshop” was one of the desired methods to lure other teachers.  We have one this summer and I hope it is met with a great response. I’m trying to get a few twitters out of the faculty before school lets out.  We have one so far, @ccroad.  She hasn’t had time to see it’s full potential yet, so drop her a line or two, and a follow.
  Lastly, I am extremely thrilled with the fact that the results show that I am on the right track with web 2.0 integration!  To think, this journey really just started in November.  The activity ideas are great, and will be implemented in same fashion.
  Was anyone surprised by del.icio.us ranking as one of the favorite web 2.0 site, but Diigo didn’t?  I am a Diigo user, so I would like to know if I’m missing something by not using del.icio.us.

It's always nice to share:)