ConnectedTalk

Like many others I have spent the past few weeks thinking about all of the events of 2007. It has been an amazing year for me in the way I learn, those who now make up my professional learning network and my understanding of the ease of connecting with others through the use of web 2.0 tools and the sense of community which exists with so many who I have met through Twitter and my reader. I thank everyone for stretching my thinking and helping me in my goal of being a life long learner.

I read many great blogs written by educational leaders passionate about the education of the world’s youth. I continue to struggle with my own blog in light of those I read, wondering at times what I have to offer, and if this is really something I am cut out to do. I am going to persevere in 2008 to help clarify my thoughts as I begin a new year with an entirely new administration (5 top positions) in my district. I have felt stagnant since summer, but now the people are in place and my hopes are I will have the opportunity to share what I have learned in the past year from my network and we will truly begin to embed collaborative tools into classroom practices. This will be a challenge for me, the new administration believes in the use of technology for data collection, using the data to drive instruction, not necessarily using technology to make global connections or work in collaboration classroom to classroom, teacher to teacher.
I am looking at it as a new day, a new opportunity and hopefully along the way some of my reflections of what are taking place in my position will be helpful to someone else. I wish you all a healthy peaceful 2008!

Recently there has been a series of rapid fire introductions to new tools ustream.tv,
operator 11, google presentations all propelled to the forefront through the invisible connections of twitter and other social networking sites many are connected to as part of their learning communities. I have to say at times I feel overwhelmed with all of the discoveries passed on, trying to find the time to look, explore, evaluate, and understand the potential either for classroom use or as a suggestion for use in someone’s own professional development. I have to be cautious of what I pass along, classroom teachers may be likely to try one new thing in a year’s time so I can’t throw too many things at them and hope something sticks. I have to have a clear understanding of how the tools are being used by others in education, have examples to share and talk about. In all of the commotion of new tools I also have to deal with whether these new tools are accessible in my district. Not all are, filtering seems to work differently everywhere. I have to be mindful in this area as well, when something is blocked I have to try to figure out why, and before I ask to have anything unblocked I must try think through my reasons to ask for the filter to be lifted and the ramifications of having the status changed. At times I feel as though I am on a never ending road that twists and turns and sometimes I just wish for a flat stretch to get my own bearings before thinking about sharing one more new tool that has appeared and captured someone’s eye.

Update: How does anyone else do this, how do you decide what has merit to introduce as tools you feel has value, what process do you go through? I am looking for help, suggestions, models to follow, you see in my district I do not have anyone else to bounce these ideas off of and feel at times at a loss for what direction to take. Thanks for your help!

The morning started off with David Warlick’s keynote from the K-12 Online Conference at 8:00AM EDT. The time spent today on my own professional development, while sitting at my desk, in my office was quite amazing. Not only the technology that made it all possible, but also the shear number of people participating in the conversations surrounding the keynote, all of us connected by invisible threads through our social networks. People who have never met face to face, yet interact as if old friends through blogs, twitter, edubloggerworld, classroom2.0 just to name a few. To many of us the content of the keynote is not new, things we have all been talking about and struggling with in terms of what has to change in the educational system to reach our students, to prepare them for their future which we cannot predict. For me the presentation was somewhat disjointed, I understand what he was trying to show but all the moving from one place to another did not add anything for me.

Today David spoke of how the walls in education are coming down, with the use of the available technologies, the building of networks for student use as well as our own. Our children have to be able to participate in world connected through online networks, communities, something they already do well on their own time and something we as educators need to bring into our classrooms. Our children understand how to remain connected through their conversations, it is who they are, how they interact, what they have grown up with. David said we must change our teaching strategies to reach our students as the people they are, rather than the people we want them to be. How we teach, how we learn, the way we live is and has changed, schools must change as well if we believe we are preparing students for life. I still find so much resistance to change the way information is presented to students, to use new tools in the classroom, for adults to want to learn how to use the tools through which our children are engaged. Here are three things mentioned in the keynote this morning, we should be aware of them each day and find a way to incorporate them into our teaching and learning.

• Students are information savvy, but not tech savvy, they don’t know how to work the information they have and find. There is energy in their confidence we need to harness the energy and allow them to share information, form communities and give them a place to safely make mistakes.
• There is a new information landscape and it is participatory, it connects, it flows. We must learn to participate, to create experiences with and for our students
• The future is unpredictable one we cannot describe, the best thing we can do today is teach our children, our students how to teach themselves, to learn, unlearn and relearn.

Had a very pleasant quiet 4th of July although the weather did not cooperate for local fireworks, but now we can look forward to them on the weekend.
At NECC everyone was buzzing about twitter, so of course I had to create an account, with Ryan Bretag’s assistance, and I was able to add him as a friend. I must say I am still having a hard time wrapping my head around its use although it is fun to watch others short brain blips as they put them out there. Can anyone help me with this, do you have twitter accessible all the time, open on your computer?