I’m doing the tango!
And to think that after my surgery in May, I thought my dancing days were over! Not so! I’m learning the tango and learning the steps in Canada. What a joy! Accolades to Darren Kuropatwa of A Difference. That name is so appropriate because Darren is indeed making a difference and what a difference! Darren has orchestrated a learning ecology that makes me want to call out the band! He talked about the need for students to see it evolving. Amen!
OLE (Orchestrating a Learning Ecology) blog started off with upbeat music that set the mood for the day. That festive learning mood continued throughout the day.Darren explained his philosopy and the concrete steps he takes to use the tools on the web that fit his three criteria:
- do one job VERY well
- free
- fit into the “Small Pieces, Loosely Joined” paradigm
Another quote from Darren:
OLÉ is the heart and soul of how I blog with my students. RML is the toolbox; the technological literacies. We’ll tango for about an hour and half. We’ll be ripping, mixing and learning for the rest of the day. He talked about the infinite possiblilities. All of this is onthe weblog and he did a great job, it was free and it fit into the“Small Pieces, Loosely Joined” paradigm. What a way to teach! He pointed out how important it is to take care of this garden and keep it fresh to hold the students’ interest. The explanation of the scribes and how that piece isorganized will show you how you can truly put this in the hands of the students. They are writing their own textbook.
- Is our classroom blog valuable to you? If yes, how so?
- How would you feel if our blog suddenly went offline and couldn’t be recovered?
The students prepared these answers with the workshop participants in mind. It’s inspiring reading., truly words
of wisdom. I love listening to the student voices. Their posts are awesome! Just think, it’s all available for everyone to view - not just his workshop class. Now all this is just a tiny bit to whet your appetite. Go through the whole blog. It is the best!
The second part of the workshop was Rip Mix Learn. In this part the workshop participants created blogs and posted. The used
the chat box. Great discussions blossomed from the group.RSS (focus on Bloglines), Furl, Flickr and more! It is already one hour later than I usually leave and on a Friday! That’s what inspiring teaching and learning does for you. Isn’t it great?
Darren is creating a vision for the future that we all would do well to emulate! He ended up with this inspiring vision from Will. Wow! I had already read that once and a second read is even more inspiring! Let’sdance!