Reflections - The Road Traveled

What did I know, what do I know and what will I do? Until December, my professional development consisted of taking classes in education and in my content area, for the purpose of making me a "better teacher." While scanning the course schedule for PSU, I happened to notice a course entitled, Teaching and Learning in a Networked Classroom, which sparked my interest as my classroom had been fitted with an infocus and we were encouraged to change our teaching style. I had never taken a technology class before but the thought of blogs and podcasts intrigued me. I had heard of them but really hadn't a clue what they were; still very much a Web 1.0 mentality, I decided to jump in and what a road it has been!

The first week I was in such a panic, downloading, audacity, skype, creating a blog, signing up for google e-mail and setting up an rss reader! Then the ice storm hit, no power, skype phone call with Kim, while sick with bronchitis; I thought I must have been out of my mind to sign up for this class. But, just as Jeff said, by week three, we would be on a roll, and on a roll I was!

The readings were informative, the process challenging and exciting. Blogging was becoming easier and I had learned how to import videos from Teacher Tube, You Tube, images from Flicker and Google, create hyperlinks and my information was flowing to me in my google reader. I had so much information flowing to me and so many new web sites, I was beginning to become over whelmed, but enter my new address book - delicious; perfect.

I became so excited with all that I was learning, I found myself engaging others in conversation about technology and Web 2.0 and where we needed to look toward in educating our students. My students were producing projects that including technology and I created a blog using Edublog to communicate with my students parents. I had a lot of fun creating valentines for my husband and children with Animoto.

My greatest learning curve came when I had to create a podcast. I searched for every tutorial I could find, held my breathe and jumped in. It took a couple of trials to record using Audacity and many to upload to Podomatic correctly. It was so easy to miss out a step between Audacity to my blog, but podcast I did! My son discovered my blog on line and was so impressed.


Where am I going? I have a blog for communication with my parents and plan to produce a weekly podcast by my students. I plan to create a wiki for collaborative projects and become more of a facilitator than a director. Oh, and by the way, I am signing up for another technology class! I'm not sure where this road is taking me, but I'm on my way....learning and relearning.

Thank you.

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Bill Strickland: "Water is Life"

Bill Stickland is truly an inspiration! After watching the 35 minute video, I sat and reflected on his profound wisdom. This man could have fallen through the cracks as a high school student, but didn't, perhaps because of one ceramic teacher who showed him the light. He has been giving back that "light" ever since. He has certainly renewed my motivation and energy to try and impact as many students as I am able. Wanting to know more about Bill Stickland I discovered another powerful video, Make the Impossible Possible, and have posted the link here.

http://www.impossiblemovie.com/


How true when a person is consumed in gloom and feel they are sentenced to a life of misery, how bleak life can be. He demonstrated that by giving a person "affection, sunshine, flowers, food and good music", they can grow, become creative and value themselves and thus a change in behavior. We all need to remember:

"Water is Life

Sun and flowers equal hope




Children being celebrated






Being able to see themselves causes change in behavior







Make a friend in every town and you will never be lonely." (Connections)







It would be wonderful if the Bidwell Training Center could be the model for all schools.

Why Do Project-Based Learning?

There is nothing new about project based learning. Teachers have always used projects as a supplement to their regular course of instruction. It shifts away from the teacher-centered lessons and instead emphasizes learning activities that are long-term, student-centered, interdisciplinary and integrates real world issues and practices.

PBL helps make learning relevant and useful to students by establishing connections to life outside the classroom, developing real world skills, including the ability to work well with others, make thoughtful decisions, take initiative, and solve complex problems.

It has not been uncommon to hear students say "what do I need to know that for?!" and "I'll never use that." For years students taught by the practices of short, isolated, teacher-centered lessons had a hard time finding relevance to their education and thus rarely motivated to learn. Many students who enrolled in vocational or technological studies learned by relevance; applying math or science skills in real life situations. Many of these students, as a result, continued on into higher education.

PBL allows teachers to build relationships with their students as they become coaches or facilitators discussing what learning is taking place. Projects also allow opportunity to make connections with the community; by sharing the finished project and the business community who have a stake in the students' education.

"Project-based learning is intended to bring about deep learning, where students use technology and inquiry to engage with issues and questions that are relevant to their lives. These classroom projects are used to assess student's subject matter competence compared to traditional testing."

As a middle school exploratory teacher, I have the wonderful opportunity to work with students in integrated projects, including an International Festival, International Gardens Project and a Rainforest's Project. When working on these projects, the approach has been less structured than a traditional classroom and students must collaborate and produce their own artifact to represent what is being learned.

An outstanding project is the FIRST Robotics program where students partner with adult mentors from the fields of math, science and engineering to build a robot from scratch and program the robot using technologies as professionals. Students have six weeks to design, build and program a robot to do a specific task. There is a lot of both school and community support. The year my son participate, they had to build robots that could pick up and transport large balls and deposit them into a large container. Competition is stiff with regional and national competitions.

When used with 21st century tools/skills, project based learning provides a meaningful way to investigate, collaborate, analyze, synthesize and present their learning.

Recording a Podcast - Update

Recording and posting my first podcast was a huge learning curve for me, that spanned over a couple of weeks while I was trying to keep up with other assignments and work. As I stumbled through the process, I asked a number of staff members at my school if they had ever make a podcast, and not a single one had; including our youth! Although it was challenge for me, it was also a great learning experience. As I went through the process, making mistakes, missing out steps, I finally got it and I will never forget the process. For the feeble minded, like myself, I found a couple of sources that was helpful to me. They are:

http://http//radio.about.com/od/podcastin1/a/aa030805a.htm

http://http//www.guidesandtutorials.com/podcasting-tutorial.html





Although these were really helpful and made to look easy, it wasn't so much. ( it's obviously because they've done it a lot). This process reminded me of a program on the PBS television series Cooking at the Academy. Bo Friberg, pastry chef and author of The Advanced Professional Pastry Chef, demonstrated how to create a puzzle cake. It was a challenging cake that he made look too easy. He should have posted a warning: "For professionals only. Do not try this at home." It just takes practice!

One of my students came into class the other day excited and couldn't wait to tell me she had just made her first movie, using movie maker, and had uploaded it to You Tube; she dedicated it to her friend who taught her . The thrill of learning!

Thank you, Laura, for your wonderful comment on my podcast that I woke up to this morning! The thrill of learning! Laura, if you use podomatic to upload your audio, after you upload your media, then fill in the description, another screen pops up that gives you the option of adding a picture. Just save your picture or image in your computer first, then browse and upload.

My Podcast - Finally!!

Teaching in a New Networked Classroom - Yes We Can!

The Internet has become a new platform for users because of its two-way communication abilities and therefore has become increasingly popular to integrate technology into the classroom. And as a teacher, I believe we are about to have the biggest discussion on education. We need to ask, how do we learn? Jeff raised the following questions about our students:

"What should they know?

What do we think they know

"What do they need to know?"

Where will this discussion take us? Already in this class, we have explored the potential of social networking, media sharing and other web 2.0 tools These are popular tools, not just for education, but popular among our students. Our students have been using web 2.o tools for a long time; writing blogs, uploading photos and videos, building personal portfolios and interacting with each other every day. They have Myspace and Facebook accounts and explore popular sites such as Wikipedia and Flickr; therefore students are already motivated to use technology. The new requirements of 21 century learning is forcing us to focus on education differently. It is forcing us to help our students learn in new ways and to show them there is a whole world to connect with.

Obama said: 'we can stop talking about how great teachers are, and start rewarding them for their greatness!


Why should we use technology in our classrooms? Best practices would embrace education that includes:
*creativity
*collaboration
*promotes student centered learning
*engages students
*learning not limited to school boundaries
*writing not limited to one-on-one communication
*helps students become familiar with technology.

I'm following a lot of discussion about how to use Web 2.0 technology to help students learn and it usually comes back to co-operative learning. It is important to engage students in activities, to collect material, analyse information and process it with others, work on documents and wiki's, post comments and editing information with the help of the teacher. Students should not be left on their own but should be guided by the teacher to evaluate information and to ask the right questions. As teachers we need to find ways to use technology in our classrooms and consider the security issues and the copyright. Technology will not take away the need for teachers, instead we will need to be the center of education because our students will need our guidance more than ever and to encourage and motivate them to become better learners

The following is a link to PBS a Frontline report on "Growing Up Online."

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/

So what should teachers be looking for? What are the answers to those thought provoking questions? The more I read about this, the more I feel that I need to keep looking further. And for now, while evaluating what works in my class, I am modeling the use of using Web 2.0 tools. I have linked a my blog from Edublog to our school's web page to start that conversation with my students' parents.

A Wonderful Thing Happened.....

Teaching in the public education system has its trials and tribulations; days where you wonder if anything is working and why am I doing this? Today was a day of total exhilaration, a day that makes all others worthwhile. In a previous posting, I wrote about teaching the endocrine system to my eight grade students and their project, a presentation to the class must include a technology component. I was not prepared for the lack of technology skills among some students in an age that I thought they knew more than I. Some of my students are still using two fingers to "peck" and a number had never made a web page, PowerPoint or video before; others, however, were very savvy. The division was very notable; probably due to socioeconomic backgrounds and ability levels.

Rather than telling my students how to learn, I encouraged them to work together and experiment with different tools. To my surprise and astonishment, an autistic young man pulled up his chair to a young lady that had no idea how to begin in developing a PowerPoint. In a very positive and supportive way, he helped her get started while working on his project. The smiles on their faces, the delight of success in her voice, was more than money could buy!

Personal Learning Networks

I had a hard time getting started writing this post as I had to really think about what a Personal Learning Network is and what it means for me.

As I middle school teacher, I have been lucky enough to work in a relatively collaborative environment. My building has teacher rooms where we get together for lunch and share information, ask questions, frustrations and even sometimes solutions: along with a few laughs. The people in that room made up my personal learning network. As nice as that is, I can also feel more isolated than connected being the only health teacher in the building.

The key to developing a personal learning network is to make connections. Taking the class, Learning and Teaching in a Networked Classroom, has opened the door for me to take those first steps in making the connections. It has truly been a learning curve for me and although I am on the road I have a lot more traveling to do. Many of the social tools were unfamiliar to me and the number of tools out there daunting, but through participation, I am becoming more comfortable using them. I realize I need to become adapt using tools and making connections before I can guide my students in the process.

To make those connections I need to read, listen to and view what others post. I have read many wonderful posts, many from my own classmates, and it is important to leave comments. I haven't been very good with leaving responses and need to be better about doing so; any community/connections is only as good as your contribution. My next step is to explore additional social tools like Ning and Twitter and connect with other educators in other areas of the country and around the world.

I believe personal learning networks include personal learning environments. Wikipedia defines the environment as " systems that help learners take control of and manage their own learning. this includes providing support for learners to:
* set their own learning goals
* manage their learning; managing both content and process
* communicate with others in the process of learning
and thereby achieve learning goals."

In preparing my students to develop their own personal learning networks, it is important to create the climate or environment that they need to learn in; middle school students often have a difficult time working together. I have written three works on my board: Competition, Cooperation, and Collaboration. With new class rotations, we discuss what those words mean, how they help us to learn and apply them when reflecting on team building/community activities.

I start my class by putting a WORDLE on the board. WORDLES provide and interesting and enjoyable series of unique puzzles which serve as the basis for lively group discussions. It encourages brainstorming and rapid-fire comments. Using WORDLES in small groups encourages competition, and cooperation and soon students find themselves collaborating to create some of their own.

My class incorporates activities from Project Adventure which helps students come together to build trust, break down the artificial barriers between individuals and groups of individuals thus improving the ability of students to work together.

In eighth grade, the students are studying the endocrine system, working in groups to research the different glands and then as the "expert" on the gland, present what they have learned to the rest of the class. Instead of allowing students to pick their venue of presentation, I have made it a requirement that they must use technology: video, PowerPoint, graphs, charts,or podcast. I am very excited to facilitate the process and to witness the outcome. If all goes well, I would like to take the next project to the next level and include a wiki!

I just found this video on Teacher Tube that I would like to share.

Enter Web 2.0

Can anyone truly define what Web 2.0 is? As I understand it, Web 1.0 was a Web of documents which morphed into a Web of data. In Web 1.0, a small number of writers created Web pages for a large number of readers which allowed them to go directly to the source for information. That was simple until people started to create their own content along with reading it. As personal publishing, such as blogs and podcasts, took off the amount of information on the Web exploded and a new way of managing it had to take place.


In recent years and taking the course, Teaching & Learning in a Networked Classroom, I have been moving into Web 2.0 with tools such as Wikipedia, blogging, podcast, wikis, tagging and syndication. According to Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly Media, he defines Web 2.0 as the following in this YouTube video:







And if you want a full picture of what Web 2.0 is then watch this video by our teacher jutecht.





Thanks Jeff, that was great!

Podcast - Tutorials

It is very clear to me that technology such as iPods and MP3 players along with technology has now empowered anyone who wants to have a new voice have one. I have watched many excellent podcasts which has redefined the "radio." I admit I feel like a "fish out of water" learning to embrace new paradigms. This past week, not only have I watched many podcasts, but watched tutorials and downloaded iTunes. I asked my daughter (tech generation) if she uses iTunes and of course she said yes Mom, and then I asked her if she has ever blogged, produced a podcast, used skype, flickr or audacity, her response was, "how much longer do you have this class?" Ha. Ha. ( or in instant messaging lingo, LOL) I am formulating some exciting ways to use this technology in my classroom! For any of you that is of the "old generation" and would like a few of the tutorials I watched here they are:















http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/
http://www.podcasting-tools.com/how-to-podcast.htm
http://radio.about.com/od/podcastin1/a/aa030805a.htm



Have fun, I am!

Finding my Voice in an Unsettling Week

Even in a "bad" week web 2.0 is wonderful! I guess I should explain what I mean especially if this blog is my "blog of choice" for this week. My youngest son served four years in the Marines, from age 18 to 23 with a deployment in Iraq. He was wounded several times and received The Purple Heart. He currently lives in the Washington DC area and has found employment very difficult. His current employer has taken advantage of his situation and he is underpaid and treated poorly. His debt continues to grow and he has been unable to find another job. Obviously, in this recession, there are many people out of work, but our young men returning from war are even less equipped to deal with such a market. Curtis went directly from high school into the marines leaving a huge gap in his education and his preparedness in this fast paced changing world of technology and knowledge. Our young men and women are well trained for the military but given little preparation to return to and survive the civilian world.

Needing help to write a resume that didn't shout military and transfer his skills to the civilian work, my son turned to the marines who then put him in contact with a company called Triple Canopy. A few faxes later, they offered him a job doing security detail in Iraq. I was horrified! Who is this company? What do they do? And why pressure for a commitment in just a few days?

I know I am rambling, but this had me raising alot of questions; turning to the web: I blogged, emailed (The White House and Iraq) and searched the web for any information possible. Consider:

"The Bush Administration is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into its own global private mercenary army tasked with protecting US officials and institutions overseas." The secretive program paid for by the little known Worldwide Personal Protective Service (WPPS) has paid Blackwater (a Republican-connected firm) more than $320 million between 2004 and 2006.

The WPPS contract awarded in 2004 was divided among a handful of companies, among them DynCorp and Triple Canopy. Blackwater was slated to be paid $229.5 million for five years but just two years later had been paid $321,715,794, according to the State Department. No one could explain the discrepancy.

The WPPS program escalated under the Bush administration with one report estimating some 48,000 private soldiers, working for 181 private military firms, were deployed to Iraq alone.

Blackwater has been at the center of strained relations between Washington and Baghdad following the shooting of 17 civilians which fueled the anti American insurgency in Iraq, where many Iraqis saw the blood shed as a demonstration of American brutality and arrogance.

While many private security firms are well respected, those that shoot first and don't care to ask questions later reflect on our military as all are Americans.

We have starved our military troops and sent them into war without adequate equipment while private security personnel receive upwards of $1000.00 a day, mostly tax free.

The Bush administration made sure there was no real accountability in the contracting arena. Who is overseeing these well paid cowboys?

There appears to be an increasing dependency on providing security from these firms and expending huge sums of money for them as we do not have enough military?

Why are we paying huge sums of money for hired gunmen to protect our diplomatic personnel and bases, keeping them in luxury and our military men and women in poverty and without the tools to succeed ounce they have served their country?

To be fair, Our current administration is putting in legislation to make these firms accountable under US law and provide our military with a substantial GI bill to return to school. But what about the gaps? I welcome your opinion.

Wikis in Education and Beyond

Wikis are exciting! A few months ago I had never heard of a wiki until I signed up for a class called Teaching and Learning in a Networked Classroom through PSU. Our teacher jutecht, explained that we would not be using blackboard but run through a wiki using wetpaint.com. He continued to explain what accounts to sign up for and we would be doing a lot of blogging, using a wiki, and creating a podcast. Oh yes, he then explained, we would be communicating with him in Bangkok, Thailand and please feel free to edit his text; unheard of! Had Scottie beamed me up to a new world




A Wiki is a combination between a Web site and a Word document. It can be read, has ease of editing, and groups can work collaboratively on the content. Each time a person makes changes to a wiki page, the revision becomes the current version and all older versions are stored.












Wikis are gaining headway in education as a tool for collaboration among students and educators in compiling data and working on group projects. The fabulous, The Flat Classroom Project and the Horizon Project, truly shows excellence in education! As I continue to search the web to learn more about Wikis in Education, there are many excellent sources to help educators get started. One such site Open content.org, is a rich source for resources on blogs and wikis in education, covering everything from district policies to how to use blogs and wikis to facilitate learning.





George Siemens in Knowing Knowledge, states "To know today means to be connected. Knowledge moves to fast for learning to be only a product. We used to acquire knowledge by bringing it close to ourselves. We were said to process it-to have it exist in our heads. We can no longer seek to possess all needed knowledge personally. We must store it in our friends or within technology."

My husband has a very demanding position where he is heavily involved in committee work, negotiating contracts, supervising staff and creating new projects. He complains that he does not have enough time in the day and gets up earlier and earlier to get his job accomplished; a day off may mean being behind in upwards of a hundred e-mails. He is a man of "tradition" in methods of education and doing business; new learning is "painful." While doing my research on wikis, I quietly suggested he might like to take a look at wikis....it just might help focus energy and resources. Even quieter, he replied, "I'll would have a look."

Regardless of whether a wiki is used in education, business,
or government, it is a great tool for collaborating and synthesizing information.

"The Time Has Come"

Approximately at noon on January 20, 2009, the United States swore in a new president, Barack Obama. In keeping with the theme of his campaign, almost at the instant Obama was sworn in, http://www.whitehouse.gov/launched a redesign of its web site signalling a new era in government; change has come. The new site is interactive and promotes communication between the new administration and the public. This follows the tech-savvy approach that President Obama used to communicate and get his message out during his campaign. The site demonstrates Obama's awareness of the importance of Web 2.0 which emphasises communication and connections. This site should not be confused with the site of President George W. Bush and his administration which conveyed a more transitional and quiet persona. During the inauguration, millions of people came together to acknowledge "the time has come for change", they stood shoulder to shoulder, people of all races and backgrounds, making connections.

Our country has embraced new leadership with the promise of change and while on President Obama's watch No Child Left Behind Act will come up for renewal. Educators will look for increased funding at federal level which will be difficult with our current financial crisis. Is it not surprising that the President proposes spending $500 million to upgrade school technology?

So what about school leadership? Our traditional views of school leadership have emphasized managerial or operational functions. Today, school administrators are still managing operations while focusing on student learning, standards, accountability tests and performance assessments. School leaders are extremely important in determining whether technology use will improve learning for all students. They need to collaborate with teachers, school personnel, school board members and community to create a vision for the future of our schools to adjust to our social and economic lives brought on by technology, thus School 2.0.

So the time has come...

..............School 2.0

Collaboration...connections..........

Media Sharing : The New Social Community

Media Sharing - it's everywhere. Just a few short years ago we communicated and shared using land line phones, wrote letters and showed our family photographs from our wallets. Now we have many interactive methods of communicating: via email, instant messaging, text message, postings and linking to web sites, PDA's. computers and many media sharing websites. Even my daughter's ultrasound is on CD's to share with friends and family members! This is a new era to be embraced.

As a teacher, we need to excite our students and use new innovative methods to teach. What better way to teach than to use the very skills our students use when they leave our classroom. I would like to think that I am becoming a connected teacher, exploring YouTube, TeacherTube, Flicker, RSS Reader and more.

Taking the class, Teaching and Learning in a Networked Classroom, is providing me with all kinds of information. I am really enjoying learning from other classmates' blogs. Their thought, ideas and sharing of useful sites is such a time saver and support. I look forward to reading many more!

Social Bookmarking - Why Tag?

So many web sites, so much to read, remember and save! Social bookmarking/tagging is a fabulous tool. Until now, I have been saving sites by bookmarking in my favorites. What a mess. I have now downloaded del.icio.us, and flickr and have started tagging. I can now take the chaos out of my life and organize my school work and all my other interests. I am amazed that I can now find my photographs with a click of a button.

The K12on-line conference with Chris Betcher was excellent; describing how social bookmarking can benefit your work and why tagging is so important. I had some problems with the video (hoping it was just my connection) stopping every few works or so; breaking the flow of information and a bit fustrating to listen to... His site also contains a world of information about using del.icio.us, flicker and edublog.

The social booking component - sharing with others has me intrigued. The idea of sharing web sites and information with other educators (of whom you may have never met before) allows for wonderful opportunities of collaboration and connections.

Oh, and to handle all of of my sites and readings, so my family might get dinner sometime, I have downloaded Google Gears!

A video you might like:

RSS - Right Back At You!

RSS... I am on overload! Now that I have discovered The Google Reader I have information coming back at me faster than I can read it. Before setting up my reader, I like so many others, had to search the web for sites and information. Now I am being bombarded without even looking for it. Using the RSS, I am gradually getting more comfortable with it and now I need to start to organize information into folders and what I feel is important and eliminate the rest.



The tutorial jutecht set up for our class was especially helpful. The example of receiving 29,069 feeds for global warming is mind boggling as is subscribing to just certain sections of a newspaper....incredible.



I will continue to experiment with the RSS feeder inorder to refine it

Blogging - What Is It?

Until recently, if asked, I would not have been able to explain what a blog is. If you are in your twenties, like my children or younger, like my students, you have been blogging for quite sometime. Until very recently, I communicated on line by either e-mail or bulletin boards. Following the 1990's the blog was born. But for many of us over 40 or 50; busy with work and family we just never heard of blogging. Sure, I have spend hundreds of hours researching information on line, reading other peoples posts and comments but never realizing those were blogs. Now, I am blogging!

So what is blogging? Blogging is the act of creating a blog. What's a blog? According to Wikipedia, a blog "is a web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order." The term blog is short for web log, a "log" of diary-like entries published on a web site.

The blog entry consists of a title, post date, comments, tags and other items, which I am still discovering. Registering with a blog site such as http://www.blog.com/ or http://www.blogspot.com/ are free and offer templates that you can customize. Now, if you love writing this can be a lot of fun writing about anything that interests you. Blogging is an easy and instant method of publishing to the web where content can appear in many forms including: videos, recipes, opinions, commentaries, advice and anything else someone wants to write about.

Recently, our school nurse asked for help in supporting a group of teachers who joined our "Biggest Losers'" club to get into shape. She asked for exercise and nutrition tips but also wanted to know how the teachers could support each other. Meetings generally fail due to busy schedules and meetings, so I suggested creating a blog. We have created a blog site using edublog and I am so pleased that it has been received with a great deal of excitement.

I still have a lot to learn about blogging, and the possibilities appear endless, but it also comes with a responsibility. The content is on the web for everyone to read and the author takes on that responsibility for personal opinions, beliefs and comments.

Connectivism - Teaching for the 21st Century

What is connectivism? According to George Siemens, connectivism is a "learning theory for the digital age." This is a learning theory designed for today's learner and helps to explain the limitations of the behaviourism, cognitivison and constructivism theory of previous years.



Bill Gates said:


"America's high schools are obsolete. By obsolete, I don't just mean that they're broken, flawed or underfunded, though a case could be made for every one of those points. By obsolete, I mean our high schools - even when they're working as designed - cannot teach all our students what they need to know today."


Why is that the case? What is going on? After reading George Siemens's Knowing Knowledge and Will Richardson's article World Without Walls, I realize teachers need to take on new roles in education. We need to prepare students for the 21st century in a way that is only just beginning to take shape. Students need to become life long learners, prepare for multiple careers by being able to learn and relearn as knowledge changes. They need to think global, learn decision- making skills to evaluate information and as Siemens states, 'know-where is more important then know-how."


The teacher becomes the facilitator, flexible, open, enthusiastic; shaping the learning process, modeling proper editing, locating valid websites and social collaboration. Social tools like blogs, skype, wikis, and social-bookmarking sites make the process easier. But there also lies some of our challenges. Teachers, administrators, parents and school board members still hold tight to our old methods of teaching therefore not preparing students properly for the future. Laws require filters to be used on computer networks usually blocking anothing that refers to "social."


There is good news. Universities, such as Plymouth State University offers a course called Teaching and Learning in a Networked Classroom. This course is helping teachers reshape their view of teaching to prepare our students of the 21st century. The instuctors model the role of facillitators allowing the students to learn by experimentation through social networks.



I recently viewed a posting from the blog site, Fischbowl, by Karl Fisch entitled A Whole new learning Experience: Take Two. The posting describes the learning experience of high school students in a language arts class reading A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink, and discussing it in class using the live fischbowl method along with 30 other educators from around the world. The students complete their project with a Wikified Research paper. Included is a 38 minute video produced by Dana Levesque, a technology specialist, discussing preparation and reactions to this project as well as the technology used. This is a must see! I believe this is truly what connectivism is all about and would like to make that my personal and educational goal to promote this kind of learning with my students.

School 2.0, more thoughts

After writing my last post, I have continued to read and evaluate sites regarding School 2.0 and I feel as though I am caught between two worlds: can't go back but how do I go forward. I realize that school 2.0 is not about upgrading our educational system but a revision to how students learn in an increasing fast paced world where knowledge is continually changing.The new school vision includes the learning ecosystem; school, home and community to bring together a wide variety of educational experiences. I have had many conversations with educators that believe the changes we are experiencing have been brought about by increased use of technology. It really is about pedagogy with new theories and taxonomy. The direction of school 2.0 is driven by our advanced fast changing society.

As a mother of four children and a teacher I saw the changes happen but couldn't explain why they were happening; changes in how they learned, responded and socialized. I saw a generation pass in four years! Society has advanced and so has the speed we interpret new knowledge. We need to engage in conversations on how we will prepare our students to be literate in the 21st century. The YouTube PowerPoint presentation by Karl Fisch says it all; we have become a global world with new goals and responsibilities. for the future. How will we teach for the future? Will we empower instead of lead? Questions, questions questions.

School 2.0

We are embarking on a new frontier when it comes to education. I don't believe we are there yet but the days of traditional education of the industrial years will soon be part of the past. Within the educational system one has to be constantly re-evaluating what we want students to know and be able to do. Is it the same as when I grew up? I don't think so!

We have all had to learn and relearn over the past decades. We learned to use typewriters and then evolved into computers and world processors. I fell into the web and its links (or should I say jumped) when my youngest son, a marine, was sent to Iraq as infantry living "outside the wire." I quickly discovered the world was not the same as when as when the country experienced World War II or the wars that followed. Before one would have to wait weeks before information was learned. Now it is instantaneous. It is a double edged sword, so as to speak... constant bombardment of media information and images versus "ignorant bliss". The Marines under gun fire rigged up the Internet on the roof of their outpost so they could stay connected with home. My son stayed connected with home almost every day by either the Internet (web cam, e-mail, My Space) and by satellite phone. I lived on the Internet 24-7; my husband said I was obsessed, I said it was a Mom's "need to know." I felt like I was experiencing a train wreck, you don't want to look, but you have to. I discovered many new sites, read every new story, found countless sources that helped me trace where my son was and what missions he was engaged in. I discovered My Space where links told me when he was on line. One of my greatest joys was an opportunity to see him with web cam while using AIM. I connected with people all over the country sharing information and support. What an educational ride!

My school system has embraces school 2.0 and I want to be part of it. With new ways of learning comes change and for many change is difficult and and is met with resistance. Several years ago the school system started to use Edline, posting grades and information on line so parents and students could access grades, and assignments any time. Teachers were resistant fearing the worst from parent backlash. As we have gotten better at using the system it has been of great benefit and a time saver. We have a new middle school, and all the rooms are equipped with in-focus machines and telephones. We are learning to teach in new ways. Students are required to maintain electronic portfolios contributing artifacts yearly. Many of my student show what they have learned by producing power points and videos. (I would like to post some of them, but in this process I am not there yet)

Where are we in this process? How long will it take before we are there? Those and many other questions need still to be answered. There are many hurtles that still need to be faced. Among those, we need more computers for student use, professional development for teachers to learn the new technology and how do we implement it. Educators in a time of unlimited knowledge need to decide what we want students to learn and how we want them to learn it. Then how do we assess it, by standardized tests? Should we be teaching skills to learn and relearn, critical thinking skills, and research techniques or content?