Can't go? Watch on the web!

What is Government 2.0?

Government 2.0 Camp New England is an unconference about using social media tools and Web 2.0 technologies to create a more effective, efficient and collaborative government.

Who should attend the Gov 2.0 Camp New England?

Anyone interested in improving government through social media and Web 2.0 technology should attend, including government employees, elected officials, students, researchers, and citizens of all types. The purpose of the conference is to share innovative projects and brainstorm new ideas.

Watch Gov 2.0 Camp New England live: http://bit.ly/gov20ne

PS - I will be attending and will report back during the day, if connections are available, or at least a recap after.

 

Ze Frank - fun for Friday!

I haven't posted recently on our Web 2.0 series so I thought I would do so today.

I miss Ze Frank's "The Show" - It was a glorious exploration, everyday something new. Yes, some worked better than others but going through each day, it was magic.

I recall back at the first PodCamp Boston, Steve Garfield coordinated a session that produced this video on "Riding the Fire Eagle Danger Day"!

Ze Frank summarizes some of his work in this TED talk. The two best parts are the Ray story and the last piece on "Hey, you're okay"




Of course, you should have fun everyday and not just Friday!

What are you going to do to have fun today?


Note: email subscribers will need to click through to Franklin Matters to view this video

This was originally posted to Steve's 2 Cents
http://steves2cents.blogspot.com/2010/10/ze-frank-fun-for-friday.html

For additional posts on the Web 2.0 series, you can use the search feature on the top right column and look for "Web 2.0".


Franklin, MA

"How Can I Become Part of this ReadWriteWeb Revolution?"

In our continuing series on Web 2.0, the K12 Online Conference is underway. The video clip here is one of the two keynote addresses that opened the conference. It is being conducted virtually, that is, totally online.

The keynote presenters in this clip are all from Maine. They creatively used Flip cameras to video their conversation to share with the world.

Note: this presentation is geared for teachers and urges them to get involved in the ReadWriteWeb Revolution, but you can put yourself in this position too! How are you going to continue learning to keep up with the changes in this world?

The steps they outline are easy enough to pick up and use. The online tools are mostly free. Digital cameras or camera phones are reasonably priced. The bar for entry is set low. All you need is desire.




Click through to the web site for the conference to find additional information (i.e links) for the tools and articles they referenced.

Enjoy!

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Why put this here?

There is great potential in expanding learning at a very reasonable cost (small dollars if not free) with the Web 2.0 tools. With an economic future like schools in MA in particular have facing them, this is an avenue to consider.

World Wide Web in Plain English

As part of our continuing series on Web 2.0 technologies, the folks at Common Craft have come up with a new video to explain the world wide web in plain English.



Enjoy!

Another Social Networking Site - Wicked Local

WICKED LOCAL: Social networking comes to New England sites GateHouse Media New England has entered into an agreement with TownConnect to introduce family-based social networking and a variety of other community-building tools on GateHouse’s 159 Wicked Local town web sites in Massachusetts.

Through the co-branded Wicked Local People sites, residents of the 159 eastern Massachusetts communities served by GateHouse newspapers can participate in a free, secure, private network and easily organize online communities of friends, neighbors and extended families; coordinate schedules; share photos and files; and connect families, friends, and neighbors.

“When we launched the Wicked Local network last fall, we wanted to combine professional journalism, lots of community information, and lots of opportunities for residents to interact with us and with each other,” said Kirk Davis, president of GateHouse Media New England. “Working with TownConnect allows us to take that interaction to the next level - immediately.”

Read the full article in the Franklin Gazette here

If you have followed our web 2.0 series, you should have some idea of what this site can do. I did sign up but don't have the time just now to continue to fill out the info required. There were about 20 or so other Franklin folks to do so when I signed up. It will need to have more to be worthwhile.

The digital natives are restless

Wesley Fryer, writing on his blog "Moving at the Speed of Creativity" has a wonderful post this week:

These are my notes from Robyn Treyvaud’s workshop, “The Natives are Getting Restless: Growing Up and Learning in a Web 2.0 World” at the 21st Century Learning @ Hong Kong Conference on 18 September 2009. MY COMMENTS ARE IN ALL CAPS. Robyn is the author and owner of www.cybersafeworld.com. Her wiki on digital citizenship (created with WetPaint) is http://digicitizen-wiki.com.

You ca read the full post here.

There are two videos worth viewing within the post. One I have shared here previously. One is new to me and I will share here:




Recall the discussion at a recent School Committee meeting about limiting the electronic interactions between teachers and students.

What would you do to foster appropriate digital behavior?


Note: email subscribers should click through to view the video on the website.

If Franklin matters, you can help

I believe Franklin matters, hence the name for this site. I have written of how the site came to be and how it is my public service effort here.

I am realizing that as much as I can do, there is still more to be done and hence can use some help.

• If you believe that Franklin, MA matters
• If you have some skill in writing
• If you have a willingness to learn some Web 2.0 tools

I would like to expand the writers on this site.
I would like to include those who have answered Yes to the questions above and would be willing to help.

In particular, there are Planning Board, Conservation Commission, and Design Review meetings that would be good to attend and report on. I have focused on the Town Council, School Committee, Finance Committee and Financial Planning Committee to "follow the money". These other areas are important to cover and I can not do it all. Nor would I attempt to.

So if you are reading this, you already maybe someone who can help.

If you'd like to explore what this would mean (and what help/training I would provide) please let me know.

You can comment or send me an email at shersteve@gmail.com.

Thank you!

K12 Online Conference

There is a great conference om K12 education occurring using the Internet this week. Three good links for presentations that occurred yesterday can be found here. Each link will take you to the individual page where you can see the video or listen to the audio of the presentation along with additional reference links.

1 -

Parallel Play or Collaboration–Leveraging the Wiki Platform for High Quality Work

from K12 Online Conference 2008 by k12online09

2 - 

Thriving in a Collaborative Web 2.0 Classroom: The “Great Debate” and “Student News Action Network”

from K12 Online Conference 2008 by coolcatteacher

3 - 

Engaging Our Youngest Minds

from K12 Online Conference 2008 by k12online09

Enjoy!

wikis in Plain English

Continuing our series on web 2.0 tools, we have this one from the folks at Common Craft on wikis. The most common wiki is wikipedia which has more entries and is more accurately updated than a printed encyclopedia.





How could Franklin use a wiki? If we created our own, we could do any number of things with it.

You could create an account on wikipedia and edit the entry for Franklin, MA.

K12 Online Conference

The K12 Online Conference is around the corner. Here is a cool video clip teaser for the Digital Writers Workshop scheduled to be presented by Jackie Gerstein.



Find more videos like this on K12 Online Conference


What and when is the K12 Online Conference?

The K-12 Online Conference invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. The 2009 conference theme is “Bridging the Divide.” This year’s conference begins with a pre-conference keynote by classroom teacher and international educator Kim Cofinothe week of November 30, 2009. The following two weeks, December 7-11 and December 14-17, over fifty presentations will be posted online to our conference blog and our conference Ning for participants to view, download, and discuss. Live Events in the form of three “Fireside Chats” are listed on the events page of our conference Ning and Facebook fan page, and live events will continue in 2010 through twice-monthly “K-12 Online Echo” webcasts on EdTechTalk. Everyone is encouraged to participate in both live events during and after the conference as well as asynchronous conversations.  Over 122 presentations from 2008, 2007, and 2006 are available, along with archived live events. Follow the K12 Online Conference onTwitter and Facebook!

The K12 Online Conference website can be found here

Blogs in plain English (video)

as part of a series on Web 2.0 technologies, here is an explanation of blogs by the folks at Common Craft:

Phishing scams in plain english

In our continuing series on understanding Web 2.0, one of the drawbacks of free and easy email is found with multiple scams. The folks at Common Craft have come up with a video to explain phishing scams. Very well done. Be careful what you click on in email!





Note: For those subscribers to this blog, this is one link that you can trust.

The Web 2.0 thing explained (video)

I posted this to the Joyful Jubilant Learning blog last year when I found it. It is still relevant today. Dr Michael Wesch prepared this. It moves quickly but can be replayed if you need to catch specific parts again.

Common Craft on Photo Sharing

Continuing the Web 2.0 series on new technologies and how to use them, the wonderful folks at Common Craft have this explanation on photo sharing:





Enjoy!

PS - You may have noticed that most of the photos I post here are from my Flickr account. You can also click through to see the full slide show of all my Franklin photos by clicking on any one of the photos. I also use a little widget in the right column to scroll through the photo collection.

Common Craft explains Twitter

As part of the continuing series on Web 2.0, the tools and how they are used, here is a brief explanation of Twitter from the wonderful folks at Common Craft:




Do you Twitter?

You can find my twitters under the user name of "shersteve".

Meetup.com

Continuing our series on understanding Web 2.0 tools, the good folks at Common Craft have a new video this time produced specifically for Meetup.com.


What's Meetup? from Meetup HQ on Vimeo.


FYI - there are 6 groups within 5 miles of Franklin and 29 groups within 10 miles. Quite a variety with room for more.

Enjoy!

Podcasts in plain English

In our continuing series exploring the technology of Web 2.0 and social media, the folks at Common Craft have a new presentation on podcasts.

What is a podcast?

Watch this and find out the basics. Enjoy!






By the way, I will be at PodCamp New York on Saturday. What I learn there, at SOBCon08 and PodCamp Boston 3, you will eventually see the results of.

If Franklin matters, you can help

I believe Franklin matters, hence the name for this site. I have written of how the site came to be and how it is my public service effort here.

I am realizing that as much as I can do, there is still more to be done and hence can use some help.

• If you believe that Franklin, MA matters
• If you have some skill in writing
• If you have a willingness to learn some Web 2.0 tools

I would like to expand the writers on this site.
I would like to include those who have answered Yes to the questions above and would be willing to help.

In particular, there are Planning Board, Conservation Commission, and Design Review meetings that would be good to attend and report on. I have focused on the Town Council, School Committee, Finance Committee and Financial Planning Committee to "follow the money". These other areas are important to cover and I can not do it all. Nor would I attempt to.

If you already have some skill and interest and a topic that would be good to share with the Franklin community, then we should talk as well.

So if you are reading this, you already maybe someone who can help or know of someone who might be able to.

If you'd like to explore what this would mean (and what help/training I would provide) please let me know.

You can comment or send me an email at shersteve@gmail.com.

Thank you!


Franklin, MA

Twitter search

The folks at Common Craft have released another great explanation video. This time they explain how searching Twitter makes the information more valuable.



This is another in the continuing series on Web 2.0 tools.

Thanks to the folks at Common Craft for helping to make this possible.

Digital Learning - What do we want for Franklin?

As we gear up for another discussion on grim finances and the sections of the taxpayers appear to be pitted against one another in a case of the "haves" vs. the "have-nots", the "fors" vs. the "against", I suggest we step back and discuss our priorities.

How do we enable an appropriate education for our children's digital future?

Spend four minutes of your time to view this:



This is a more pointed, that is education focused, version of the Web 2.0 explained that I shared here earlier.


What do we want for our Franklin students?


The "we" is deliberate. We are all in this together. Together we can discuss and decide.