Avoiding the Duality Duel January 22, 2008
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I was watching the an old western the other day and mulling over random some thoughts about dual nature of education today and considering implications of a political change in the Whitehouse.
On one side we have the rigid NCLB. Uncompromising and unforgiving. Every student can and will learn the same material to take the same test at the same time. On the other side is the wonderful world of Web 2.0. The land where students are in total control of their own personal learning.
I began to imagine a duel of sorts between the two. It started with the obligatory “this school ain’t big enough for the both of us” and continued with the dramatic music, people clearing the “hallways” and slamming shut the locker-doors to hide from the battle that was about to ensue.
After the battle was done (winner unimportant to the story), I surveyed the carnage that was left behind. You know that’s the part they never show in the movie, the destruction that is left behind and what it might take to pick up the pieces and rebuild after the ridden off into the sunset. The destruction that I saw was a learning system paralyzed, and student’s education in ruin. NCLB with it’s promises of student achievement cannot deliver, but I’m not sure just running it out of town and leaving students to create their own learning is the answer either.
I don’t have any type of answers. At this point I’m still just mulling thoughts around in my head and now in cyberspace. I’m working on it from several different angles.
- I’m trying to write a technology plan and frustrated that the format for a technology plan doesn’t really concern itself with what technology you want to purchase and why you want it
- I’m trying to educate teachers about incorporating web 2.0 technologies into their own learning and teaching, but they are busy preparing for “the test”
- I am trying to learn more for myself and don’t know where to look next or what questions to ask
- I want my own children to develop these seeking and sharing skills as well as have a “well-rounded” education
Like I said, I’m not sure of the answers or if there even are answers. I’m just wondering out loud.
Feel free to comment on what I have written, to guide me, to teach me. . .
This Week in 2.0 December 18, 2007
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Since my last post, some pretty amazing things have happened. First, I received comments (w00t - I believe is the correct expression to use here). They were very positive ad encouraging. But more than the morale booster that I needed, each commenter also offered to help me in my journey, offering not only advice, but contact information to ask questions or seek help. I now see my network beginning to grow as I follow more people in Twitter and a few have started to follow me. I have added to the RSS feed that I subscribe to. That means a lot more reading, but so far, its all been good stuff.
My new MacBook also arrived this week. With so many tools for creating and sharing digital media built into its design, I think it will be a valuable tool in my learning process. The day after it arrived, I was at an Apple Media Event where the iLife suite of tools was demonstrated. I’ve already created a basketball highlight movie with my son and a picture book of the first snowfall with my daughter. Tomorrow I am hoping to uStream our Band & Chorus concert. Should be alot of fun.
As exciting and encouraging as those things have been, the biggest boost for me came courtesy of Steve Dembo. Known online as teach42, Steve’s posts and tweets always give me reason to explore some more. It started when he and Dean Shareski started what I’m sure will be known someday as the edutwitter wars, as each climbed the Tweeter Leaderboard. Soon several edutweeters were claiming top spots in the top 100 tweeterers. Then came twitter invites to webinars that he was hosting. Those were very cool and again gave me more to think about. Lastly, and for me the most exciting part, came a comment from Steve on last weeks post. Again, his words were encouraging and full of practical ideas to strengthen my network. Thank you Steve, I am fortunate to have found an outstanding guide this early in my journey.
As for anything frustrating this week, well now that you mention it, I did get lost trying to explore Second Life. Somewhere between Orientation Island and Help I lost the window that was describing how to move about. I finally gave up and exited. Maybe, I’ll try again over Christmas break.
So that is “This week in 2.0.” Stay tuned for more updates as I continue to explore and learn that which is web 2.0.
The Dilemma December 10, 2007
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Ok. I missed posting something last week, but not to worry , no one is reading it yet anyway. I’ll try to make it up this week. Some new questions have been posed in my quest for web2.0 literacy. Mostly dealing with I’m not sure what to do with any of this stuff or how to make the most effective use of these tools.
I joined Twitter a couple of weeks ago and have been following the likes of Will Richardson, David Jakes, Steve Dembo, and Dean Shareski. While I’ve learned much just from seeing bits of their twitters, only Steve has returned the favor of following me and even still, I haven’t felt as if I have participated in a conversation yet. I know that I am still learning and don’t have much of a voice yet, but still I do have questions and don’t know how to get a response. I kind of feel like being at the kid’s table at Thanksgiving. Santa Claus, however, did respond to one of my Tweets. He response to my dilemma was kind and gentle and I will persist.
There have been some cool moments in the past week though too. By receiving tweets from these guys, I have found (and followed) some other edtech leaders including one in nearby St. Louis. I learned about the 25 days to make a difference blog and the Students2oh project. I also Ustreamed play rehearsal from our high school and a personal Thanksgiving greeting to family. Neat stuff.
My biggest question of all is: How much time do I have to sit in front of a computer to make all of this neat stuff happen? My posts don’t have many fancy links or embedded videos or pictures. And still, I spend a lot of time, day and night, watching the twitter page and Google reader to see what’s new. Today for example, I’m home on a snow day (Ice in the Metro-East today) and have spent most of the day reading blogs on the computer instead of actually doing something. It seems that social networking Web2.0 takes time from personal networking. And while most of the information is good, it isn’t the only thing I do.
I have been reading the past couple of days about folks who are not following as many people as they used to. That doesn’t seem to bode well for the new kid on the block. I may well be shut out of the game before ever getting on the field. I guess we’ll see.
First Attempt November 28, 2007
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After digging around in the Web 2.0 world for a couple of weeks now, I decided it was time to try it out. I created a wiki and presented it to our staff at the faculty meeting on Monday. It started with three questions and very little formatting. I did no training with them other than to show them the website and ask them to feel free to add whatever comments they would like. In two days several comments have been posted and a conversation is beginning to develop. I’m very excited about this because I think it means that our staff is wanting to use technology in a more meaningful way in their teaching.
New questions after IETC November 16, 2007
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I just spent 2 days at the Illinois Educational Technology Conference in Springfield, IL. I came home with more information that has challenged my thoughts of how we use technology in the classoom in my district. I can see a need to change what I have been doing and look at new ways of incorporating web 2.0 technologies, I’m just not sure where to begin.
I suppose it has to begin with some personal exploring and learning these technologies for myself before I can teach it to our staff and have them use it with students. To that end, I am going to continue this blog and hope that some of the leaders in the field will chime in and help guide my learning. I also am looking at several other tools such as twitter and delicious. I plan to follow some of the tech leaders that I have been aquainted with lately, Will Richardson, Dave Jakes and Marc Prensky just to name a few.
Web 2.0 Primer November 7, 2007
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Today’s workshop on Web2.0 technologies with Will Richardson has sparked some new ideas for me. I have thought for a long time that we should be using these technologies in our classrooms, but to this point I have been unsure of how to convince faculty that it is imperative that we use them.
***We BLOCK instead of TEACH***
Although, I don’t think these words were actually used in today’s workshop, their meaning was an underscore to everything we did today. These technologies exist and our students are using them. Instead of filtering these sites and technologies, we have to be sure that they learn how to use social networking technologies for good and for their own educational value.
***Changing the teacher’s role***
The teacher’s new role is to create connections between their students and the people who can teach them what they want to know.
***The Blog is the classroom, RSS feeds create the textbook***
