ummmmm.......!

you know it. vote vote vote!

My welcome from Germany!
I focus on Web 2.0 apps in the classroom - additionally on CR 2.0 I´ve created one of the biggest groups called DigiSkills with now 464 members. Would love if you decide to join too.
Feel free to check some of my sites:)
Hans

Hi Alyshia,

Your Alight Learning idea sounds intriguing. I recommend you take a look at Wiziq's virtual classroom and authorstream's power point presentation platform. Both are web based platforms, have a bunch of features and free basic service.

Alyshia,

What a massive and exciting undertaking! As an educator, having a single platform from which to access the many tools of 21st century teaching and learning would be great, especially one that is secure for students to use. I am a teacher-librarian for a K-8 school in Los Angeles and I have studied the research and methodologies involved in 21st century education. I work to teach students information literacy as well as support teachers by providing print/digital resources for their curricula; I find I I am an unofficial tech problem solver at my site as well. Tech at my school is in the infancy stages re infrastructure and professional development so I do not see us being your pilot school... DARN IT! However, I am VERY interested in your project and DO hope you'll keep in touch re its progress.

If I may offer my two cents to support your endeavors, it would be about:

* The struggles I have at my school for student security. Keeping kids safe is essential and yet it often seems that an inherent fear attaches itself to educators and administrators launching themselves into the 21st cent. learning environment. It suffocates many of my and my colleagues efforts. Blocked websites, no student emails, not letting kids out into the flat world b/c it lets the "big bad world" in. This is a tough one. I am sure you and your colleagues will have spent considerable time on this one.

* The other offering I would have for you is that many of the "digital immigrant" teachers have a very hard time advancing in their professional development. Learning tech tools as well as shifting away from outmoded teaching paradigms happen at a painfully slow pace. These teachers, however sincerely interested they may be, require loads of extra time to learn, practice, and have their hands held through the process. But the rewards are great when they have a break through and learn how easy the tools really are. And more importantly, how student motivation and achievement is truly revolutionized!

I am SO excited for you. Best of luck and please keep me in your contact list. I would love to be of any assistance.

Cheers,
Leslie

Congratulations for taking on such a huge task and doing it early. I am curious as to how you selected middle school content and if it is on a universal level (all state standards). Since, I teach elementary school in Virginia I would definitely like to pilot your project on the elementary level.
I wish you all the best on your project. I think it is a winner!

Alyshia,
Wow, this sounds very exciting. I am a technology coach for a pre-k-third grade building in a very progressive large district. The director is very concerned with "safety" issues and doesn't want to venture out of the security of the district's own network. Trying to convince him to let the teachers have blogs has been a chore. I will pass this on to my facilitator and share with my other collegues.
Jill

Thanks for the info, I am the tech facilitator at a Middle School so keep me posted as I'm always looking for new ways to incorporate technology. However, my district is very strict on following CIPA compliance, meaning anything that will be posted on the web, has to be filtered, so no student can swear or bully online. We use Gaggle.net for blogging/emailing for students.

Hi, Alyshia. What a challenge!

I'll look at the project in a bit here. I have never heard of IdeaBlob. Looks cool.

Meanwhile, I wonder if you know the great legacy of John M. Olin? Are he and Franklin related?

Hi, Alyshia.

I'm not seeing an idea here. Did I miss a link somewhere? All I see is "build software to help middle school".

Perhaps you mean something like this Student Data Backpack concept? Or are you thinking more in the line of software to actually help them learn?

Beautiful website. I think you should fill in a few details...unless I'm just not seeing the links.

Good researching!

Ed

Good luck with the project. I voted for you and hope your concept develops into reality

Good luck!

Ahh!! John M. Olin transformed much of the policy landscape and changed the national debate on many fronts via his highly targeted foundation givings. And, by design, they have spent all the money. If you ever get the chance, A Gift of Freedom: How the John M. Olin Foundation Changed America by John Miller is a fascinating read. Changed my understanding of the world.

OK, cool! Let me know when you move forward with the description.

I like your idea of not trying to do everything, but of starting to do a couple things well. This is always good advice, but especially if you are on a one year deadline.

Questions:
- Open source or no?
- Know what web technologies you'll be using? Javascript, of course, but any specific frameworks, either client side or server side?
- Are you using User Stories? I actually have not been through this yet, but it comes highly recommended from some high profile developers I know.
- What milestones are required for you to get credit?
- What are your assumptions about school or parent computer resources? High bandwidth? Modern browsers? Does this affect what you can do?
- Do you have a budget?
- Timeline?

Thanks for sharing here. Very interesting, and highly challenging! Look forward to hearing more!
Ed

Thanks, Alyshia, starting to get the picture better now. Very brave of you - its a big task. Not sure I'm ready to say its wise, as education is a good thing and startups are really hard! :-) Still, very cool.

Frameworks: I'm not up on CakePhP. I will say that I've explored some 40 languages along the way (I'm not a professional programmer) and Ruby/Rails is very powerful and flexible for web work. Might give you an edge over the long haul...people are doing some amazing things with it. But going with what is familiar may be critical on your time frame.

No thoughts on open source for you. I am actually wrestling with the question in my own work. Certainly open API's seem to work well for about everyone.

April 15 is a pretty aggressive software devel timeline, so you'll be sticking to the very simple, I'd imagine. 'Course, one really outstanding programmer is worth about 10 good ones, so if you've got that.....!

OK, enough from me. I'll be looking forward to reading more.

Yes. Keep me informed.

Hi Alyshia,
I wish you all the best with your project! I teach middle school students so I'm very interested and would like more information. Please keep me posted on further details.
Melvina

Alyshia,
I totally agree with your comments! Good luck with your project and I am hoping that we can convince our administration to explore options that are out there.
Jill

A wonderful project. The online learning comes to play an more and more important role in our future life. Wish everything goes well with your project.

Alyshia,
Thanks for your quick reply. Your project sounds exciting and I'd like to support and provide any feedback if possible. Our school currently uses Moodle so I'm quite interested in your research and project details. Also, I'm a language teacher so I'm curious to see how your technology project could be with second language learners. Good luck!

The project sounds great. I'd like to support it, if at all possible. Send me more specifics when they're available.

Good luck and I hope to follow your progress. Sounds like an exciting and worthwhile venture.

Hi Alyshia,
Thanks for the info. This idea looks great. I wish you good luck.

Hi,
I wish you good luck. It's a great idea. Keep me posted.

Thanks for the note! I wish you well in your project!

Alyshia,
Your idea is ambitious and I really respect your passion. As a tech enthusiast, I am always looking for ways to implement technology in the classroom (I teach 6, 7, and 8 English/History). I find that there are two factors which sometimes get lost in the tech integration discussion and they are interrelated:
1) anticipating ways the technology has the potential to impede, rather than promote student growth;
2) tying technology to learning goals.
Many students where I teach are struggling with social issues, oppositional defiance, dissociation from their own feelings, etc. as a result of growing up in a high poverty, high crime neighborhood. As their teacher, I am mindful that they need to connect to other human beings and personalize their learning. Technology is tricky in this regard. It can be used to mask, to hide, to isolate, to numb, to depersonalize, to dilute, etc. Of course it can be used as the antithesis to all those things as well, but in order to get it right, we have to openly talk about learning goals and outcomes and work backwards before implementing software. Yes, no doubt, we are way behind in offering students the resources they will need in the current climate of tech driven..everything. But, before we use anything in the classroom, we have to ask: What are we trying to achieve? Exposure for its own sake is not enough. We need meaningful immersion. And that is a complicated business that requires case by case adjustment. Just some food for thought.

Thanks for the references :-)

Alyshia,
Thanks for the invite for comment. What I'm going to say is possibly contradicting some opinions but from an Australian school's perspective, the type of project you are working on will not be successful -- even though it should. The new wave of 'filtering' websites within organizations means that any outside 'service' is mostly not available within schools. Moodle is in fact blocked in (all) Queensland government schools; in fact the act of putting school content on an outside service is actually against policy!

The Queensland government has established its own parent/teacher/student communication 'portal' - - http://education.qld.gov.au/learningplace/community/blackboard.html -- even though a lot of what you seek to do is not there yet, it will probably be there eventually - as they are seeking a 'safe' way to communicate between school and parents. They have a bigger more ambitious project as well: http://education.qld.gov.au/oneschool/

I'm not sure if this is true of the rest of the world - and as far as markets go, we are insignificant, so good luck with your project.

From my perspective, what there is yet to be created is an effective teacher communication web2 service yet; and I'm not sure why.

Good luck.
Michael