IB online

So it’s been out for a little while now, and many of us will have tried it out…but what impact is Google Wave making on schools?

We’re in the process of updating our blog software, and we’ll be looking at options for increasing participation and collaboration. We like Disqus comments, but embedding Google Wave conversations could potentially transform the nature of our communications.

We know that some of our students are using it but are any of the IB’s tech savvy teachers surfing the Wave yet? What are your first impressions?

We had a great response to our request for examples of environmental initiatives that IB schools are involved in. View the thread on your school and green issues to see some of the comments.

Paul Reid, is responsible for iPhone in Ed, a blog that covers a range of potential applications for the iPhone in education.

Definitely food for thought for anyone who is interested in widening access to education through the application of technology.

We need great examples of things IB schools and students are doing to help the environment or to raise awareness of green issues.

From walking to school to saving the rainforests, it doesn’t matter how big or small your efforts are, we want to hear about them.

So if you have examples to share, either Tweet us on Twitter, post a comment on this blog or use our contact form

We look forward to hearing from you!

As any Iphone user will tell you, there’s ain’t much you can’t do with web apps.

Apple’s lightweight device has demonstrated just how capable you really can be with just an internet connection and a load of cloud-based applications. It doesn’t need lightning fast processors or fat-pipe internet connection…it just works. In addition, Apple’s famous virus-resistance has been carried across to the Iphone, and it appears to be something Google will be implementing in their recently announced Chrome OS.

We’ve seen a lot of blurring of the lines between online and offline recently. Google Gears took us one step beyond simple online/offline sychronization and enabled us to use our favourite web apps without an internet connection. More recently, Adobe Air platforms have begun to extend the functionality of API enabled web apps like Twitter into that rarely navigated purgatory previously occupied by nefarious adware products. It’s increasingly apparent that our installed desktop applications are dating fast in comparison to our web apps, and without periodic synchronization or updates some of them are becoming archaic.

How long will it be before my creaky CS3 Adobe suite starts to look completely outclassed by free online apps? I might not be using Photoshop online right now, but if my browser was online and I could be running it all off a Netbook…hmm.

From an IB perspective, this fits well with our organizational ambitions - to be mobile, reactive and lightweight. Anything that reduces the burden of support is good for our business. What will be interesting, is to see how these products mature beyond offering cut-down but functional alternatives to the installed leviathans we rely on.

Beyond the move to cloud computing, I’d be very surprised if Google didn’t take this opportunity to push Google Connect as part of the package. If they score with their OS, the packaging of a single sign-on solution alongside it as an innocent freebie could just make Google OS the next big thing.

Read more on cnet.com

The IB online team are excited to be attending Wordcamp 2009 in Cardiff, UK.

We’ll be looking for great examples of Wordpress as a multi-lingual, collaborative and secure platform to help us deliver on the IB’s mission values of ‘Quality, Access, Infrastructure’. How are we going to do that? Well, hopefully by providing support and advice, but also by creating appropriate forums for ideas to emerge and evolve amongst the IB community.

If you’re going be there, get in touch!

This week’s announcement about the IB’s partnership with Epals is a good indication of where things are likely to be heading over the next few years, as the IB seeks to strengthen its online service provision.

With lower ‘barriers to entry’ than ever, members of the IB community are undertaking a range of creative and unexpected applications for web technology - as exemplified by Richard Allaway’s Geographyalltheway.com. We asked some of the IB’s Twitter community what tools they are already using to deliver IB curriculum. Here are the most popular responses.

Broadcast communications

When you want to get involved in a conversation with your peers, without the ‘closed walls’ of a forum dictating who’s in the conversation, Twitter is the perfect medium. With its 140 character limit and babbling, uncoordinated style, it takes some getting used to, and isn’t the right choice for every conversation…but we still love it. Sweetcron offers lifecasting capabilities…the next-level of social media. Downloading and setting up Sweetcron is a great way for the ‘armchair techie’ to stretch their skills and make a real difference to the clarity of their online communications.

• Twitter
• Sweetcron

Video

For video, we’re using blip.tv here at the IB. Why? Well it has no in-video branding and it’s user-friendly. On the downside, it appears that the Great Firewall of China is blocking blip.tv, so we need to look to alternatives.

• Vimeo
• Blip.tv
• Youtube

Web browsing assist

If you find you need more than bookmarks and your history folder to keep track of what’s hot on the web, you should definitely investigate one of these web 2.0 stalwarts. They’re a great way to find out about emerging trends as well as helping you keep track of all those great sites you happen across.

• Diigo
• Del.icio.us
• Digg

Blog publishing/CMS

The IB online team think Wordpress is fantastic, we’d happily use it for everything we do…but, there’s sometimes a need to do rapid development of niche products that aren’t best served by Wordpress. In those cases, you need to knuckle down with the more heavyweight developers at Joomla, Drupal and Expression Engine who are making open source a true competitor to the enterprise level products out there.

• Expression engine
• Wordpress
• Drupal
• Joomla

Close communications/Private networks

For many of the IB community, it’s these services that offer the most immediate and tangible benefits. You can create a Ning community in an hour, and you can start adding members immediately. It’s a fantastic service, which has certain limitations in scope, but by working with other free services like Wikispaces and Google docs, you can create your own fully-functioning learning environment from your desk!

• Wikispaces
• Ning

Document sharing/collaboration

The ultime supplementary service, Google docs is part of a move towards cloud computing that isn’t going to go away. Virtualising your hard-drive by uploading everything to the web is a great way to understand exactly what’s around the corner…no more hard-drives, no more discs, just a cloud of data. We’ve spoken about the role of Google docs in learning before. Sites like Flickr, Photobucket and even Facebook have become popular as vanguards of the cloud computing movement, but now sites like Scribd are taking popularising the same kind of service for documents…and this holds huge potential advantage to teachers who want to store and work with documents online.

• Google docs
• Scribd
• Flickr

Overall, what’s really exciting is the way anyone can combine these freely available services to provide sophisticated online learning and collaboration environments. On their own, they’re great tools…but we haven’t even scraped the surface of what’s possible.

When we started Twittering in earnest on behalf of the International Baccalaureate® a few short months ago, we quickly came to realise that there were a lot of IB teachers already out there taking full advantage of the opportunities afforded by web 2.0 technologies.

Richard Allaway is a great example, his website ‘Geographyalltheway.com‘ was recommended by a number of our Twitter friends as a good example of how technology can be applied to learning. We asked Richard to give us a few words on how he came to develop his site, what it takes to keep it running, and what he has planned for the future.

Your one line resume:

Geography teacher, aspirant geek and author of geographyalltheway.com.

What was the driver behind creating geographyalltheway.com?

I started working at the International School of Toulouse in 2006, where each student has a laptop. The creation of a website seemed to be the easiest way to get the work to the students and to organize and review my teaching. The site has grown to be more than that now. I am moving to work at the International School of Geneva – Campus des Nations this summer and the site will develop with the challenges of my new school, the new IB Geography syllabus and teaching MYP Humanities.

What were the challenges you had to overcome?

I had to start with learning some basic website creation skills which I did with an online course. This got the ball rolling and then I problem solved each obstacle that arose as I tried to see through an idea or lesson approach. I have been lucky enough to work in Toulouse with Russel Tarr, the author of www.activehistory.co.uk and www.classtools.net. He has been a constant source of support and ideas pointing me in the correct direction when I got stuck. There is also a financial burden of hosting the site. As more people download worksheets and resources the need for more bandwidth and therefore cost increases.

I feel that web 2.0 services have developed so much in the last three years that today a teacher could very easily and quickly have an online presence. Using a wiki as a bank of information or a blog as a flow of information doesn’t require any geeky knowledge.

What do you use to create and maintain it?

I use Adobe Dreamweaver to produce the site. This is a costly program and if there are any generous souls out there who would like to support the site by buying me the latest version … I would love to find an open-source equivalent but the issue is that I am efficient with Dreamweaver and that is a huge thing when balancing school work and family life.

I use Flickr to host geographical images, I have used Scribd to host worksheets and documents and make a major use of Slideshare to host presentations.

Diigo, the social bookmarking service, plays a key part in my workflow. I use the online service to bookmark and tag useful online resources that I want to incorporate into my teaching.

Who is the primary audience of the site?

The primary audience for the site started off as being my students but this has developed to include other Geography teachers and their students. The number of visitors to the site continues to grow. My wife challenged me during the early days of the site to get visitors from both Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and the Falkland Islands – random I know, but this happened quite a while ago and the site now receives on average 2,500 visitors a day.

What would you do differently in the future?

I don’t think I would do anything differently in the future. The site continues to be where I host my day-to-day teaching resources. If others find this useful and my students benefit from the reflection caused by publicly hosting the resources then I’m a happy person.

Why have you decided to use Twitter?

Twitter is a key part of my PLN (Personal Learning Network). I have built a network by following and being followed by others. My Twitter network is a constant source of fresh ideas, resources and support. The fact that a tweet can only be a maximum of 140 characters means that the flow updates are concise and directed. You should be able to read about the use of Twitter in the next edition of IB World magazine.

What’s your last word to other IB teachers and staff?

Get involved in the online Geography community. Use Twitter to build a network with which you can share ideas and resources. Use Diigo to help you organise your online resources and share them with others. Use geographyalltheway.com and help it develop by suggesting improvements and pointing out broken links. If you are about to start teaching the new IB Geography Syllabus use and contribute to the IB Geography 2009-2017 Wiki project.