EduBlog Insights

This is without a doubt the best plans for a workshop on RSS that I’ve seen. What a grand way to begin the week!  Meet my friends in my aggregator

learning.  Dean

aspect and connectivism that veteran bloggers enjoy.

This is a wonderful model!. Thanks for sharing, Dean! His blog, Ideas and thoughts from an EdTech is one of my favorite reads! If his blog is not included in your aggregator, add it now!
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I received an email from an Elementary Education major at Mississippi Valley State University. She had a class assignment to contact at least two individuals who are in a technology leadership position and interview them via e-mail regarding three main issues. Now I don’t know about a technology leadership position but apparently some elementary education majors are reading blogs and I think that’s a great thing. I really had to struggle to answer the questions.I thought I’d share my answers with you and invite input on what you think. That would be a good post to share with the student and each other. I’ve asked her to share other answers she receives, if that’s possible. Here are the questions and my answers:

1. What are the largest problems that you face in technology integrations?

The largest problem that we face in technology implementations is our outmoded paradigm of education. Traditional models of education are built around the teacher being the expert and the one that dispenses knowledge to students. Curriculum is delivered mainly through the lecture mode. We are teaching from textbooks that in many cases are outdated as they go to print. This has to change before technology can realize its promise. The fact that we are networked and connected to virtually all the written knowledge in the world and have it available in our classrooms and homes requires that we embrace and define a new definition of literacy in our digital age. We have to understand how to use it in our schools. The traditional teaching model must be revamped where the lecture mode is not predominant and critical thinking and application is the desired outcome, not regurgitation of facts. Educators need to be involved in designing this kind of learning. We need to work with colleagues, both in our school buildings and beyond. We need chances to learn from one another’s successes and failures and to share ideas and knowledge worldwide. Students need the same opportunities for learning through these connections. How we access, use, and communicate information is changing daily. We have to be stakeholders in that learning process.

Another major problem is our current high stakes testing requirements that are the main basis, really the only basis, currently for evaluation of learning and teaching. Teachers will never be motivated to embrace technology if their evaluation is based on test results that don≠t give any value on how to access, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize vast quantities of information. Yet, these literacy skills are the very ones we need to be teaching and learning in this informational age. An outdated educational system and a method of evaluation that promotes the continuation of that system haveto be changed before technology can ever begin to realize its potential.

In addition, the limited staff development available in schools has focused on the computer, not technology≠s role in learning and teaching. We do not have the support systems in place for educators to begin reconceptualizing their role to enable learning with the aid of technology. There is no priority in place to provide teachers the time to develop an understanding of how technology can transform the way we teach and learn.

2. How important is planning the overall picture of the environment in which they operate?

Learning can occur in every environment but what is important is that access is available for all. Being literate requires being part of the network.

3. What is the single best piece of advice you could me and others who are trying to provide leadership for teachnology use?

First and foremost, provide good models of actual use of technology with students. Be a part of the online community. Join in on the conversations. Keep your eye on creating a vision for education that will work for the new literacies we must achieve for the 21st century.

I would invite you to create a blog and begin discussing some of the questions you asked. Blog about what answers you received. Get in on the conversations about learning and technology. Read other educational blogs and respond to them. Share what you are learning. Share your thinking. Be open to the ideas and thoughts from others. We have to collaborate
and share so we can create learning environments that are meaningful to students and us. I can tell you that I have learned more from blogging than any other professional development I have had. Be in control of your own learning and then mirror that to your students.

This past week I took a blogging break. I took some vacation time. It was a little over a week off just do some things that really needed doing. It was time to just think and not feel pulled here or pulled there. Plus, having time to do some things I wanted to do just for fun. No deadlines, no rush, no schedule! It was great. I want more vacations like that!

Today I’m back at work. Back to blogging! It’s good to be back. First order of the day was going through an avalanche of email. One email from an educator in Washington got me thinking. His system is providing blogs for all teachers in the district who want them. He was investigating the protocols/policies or guidelines for blog use/posting, etc. that others may have developed. I referred him to several sites where the topic had been discussed. What got me really thinking though was that most of the guidelines focused on what NOT to do like…….

• not use last names
• not plagiarize
• not post personal info like addresses or phone numbers
• not use profanity
• not use destructive criticism

It got me thinking about a class I took years ago. The speaker was talking about all our NOT rules and how that makes the students focus on what NOT to do. I agree. Don’t get me wrong, I agree with these NOTS but I think we are missing the boat. We need to focus on the possibilities. I know. Here I go again on the possibilities but that is the heart of it all for me. I really think blogs could be a platform to redefine education. I want that redefining to include the voices of students. Students really need to be engaging in this type of thinking. I’ve found that many of them don’t know how to reflect and talk about their learning experiences. Why would they? We haven’t really given them much time for this type of writing. We haven’t given them much time to talk about how they learn; it’s mainly about what they learn. We need to change that. We need to talk more with our students and really listen. We need to help them with learning how to express their thoughts and help us understand the changing learning arena.

OK, my new and improved guidelines for blogging:

For students:

• practice writing their thoughts about what they are learning, what they understand and don’t understand, why it is meaningful or not
• making connections to their learning by exploring what others have written about it on the web
• contributing their ideas on how our schools could be restructured to have them excited about and believing that they will actually use the information they have acquired in school. What’s
• striving to improve your writing and take risks
• with expressing your ideas and bouncing those ideas off of a much larger audience
• providing a good model of blogging that will convince others that you are thinking and learning (and improving your writing)
• developing a distinct voice that will make a difference
• striving for writing that matters
• expressing your opinion but backing it up with well thought out reasons
• learning to collaborate
• asking questions that will make a reader think and want to comment
• realizing that inappropriate comments can be handled in such a way that negates their impact

I started this list with students in mind but it works for us, too. Another guideline to go along with the blogging:
• having face-to-face communication and discussions between teachers and students.

That’s what teachers need to be blogging about and sharing with other educators. Now I’m not
done thinking. This is just my initial brainstorm. What do you think?

Jenny Levine’s blog, The Shifted Librarian, is one of my favorite blogs to read. Nobody blogs conferences as well as she does. She blogged Will’s keynote presentation at the Internet Librarian conference in Monterey, California.and I felt like I was there. Now why can’t blogs be used for

posts about the conference. I learned here, here, here, here, and here.

I’m learning a lot and it’s powerful.

isn’t it more important to teach our kids to find the information

in case?

new classroom: network literacy; your network of online

need to rethink the way we assess knowledge; make them show they know the information

thinks the next 5-10 years are going to be very ugly for schools

work

I can just hear him.

OK, back to reality. I said in my previous post that  I’d

Update: In case you don’t read the nice comment on this post  from Jenny she pointed me to Sarah Houghton’s wonderful conference blog stream. Wow! Here I go again - some more great professional development. Great way to start a Friday morning! Thanks again, Jenny!

Clarence Fisher from Remote Access posts about professional development. He talks about enjoying

post:

As other’s have said, the value is in the conversation that we hold. Blogging

He ends up with this question: Will anyone besides those of us who blog understand the importance of this

I’d really like to see

learning. It allows conversations among educators themselves. This takes me back to a post I wrote a while back, Blog for staff development. I wish we could try something like this in our schools.

Clarence

Friday afternoon I had the pleasure of talking to Dr. Tim Tyson, the principal of Mabry Middle School. I had blogged about his take on Friedman’s book, The World is Flat on an earlier post, He thinks it is essential

We had

There’s even a printout that

My day began by reading this quote…..

“Write daily for 15 to 30 minutes. Many scholars believe that writing requires big blocks of time. They’re wrong. Research shows that scholars who write daily publish far more than those who write in big blocks of time. The problem with big blocks of time is that they’re hard to find. In contrast, when you write daily, you start writing immediately because you remember what you were writing about the day before. This leads to impressive production. “

This came from Tomorrow’s Professor Mailing list. The author is Tara Gray. This reading led me to this thought and hope….

Picture tomorrow’s schools. At schools across the nation writing is considered of paramount importance. The day begins with everyone writing on their own personal school blog. The first 15 minutes of each day is reserved to reflect on what they have learned, what they wish to learn, or to explore some aspect of their learning. Teachers, staff and administrators do the same. Writing is valued by our society. Time is provided for discussion about what is learned from the writing. Blogs are viewed as places to have honest, open dialogue about issues of the day. Writing helps the students become better readers and thinkers. Students and teachers are learning from each other. as they reflect crtically from available information and understandings. Assessments of
student learning are easily made through these blogs so the need for standardizing testing as a single unit to measure achievement has been eliminated, Previous time spent testing is now spent writing.

I spent

Maria - If people judged us they should judge us on more than one thing. Such

Marcos

Alejandro -  Finally,

silence of the room. The class and the whole school is so quiet.

Alejandra - Animals are very interesting to me. I like learning all about

know what they eat and how they react to some situations.

Children

that could be coming “out of the blogs of  our kids.”

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I’m feeling a little “scattered, covered & smothered”. There’s Del.icio.us, Skype, Talk Digger, TagCloud, BlogPulse, and ScuttlEDU. How about BlinkList, Ice Rocket, H2O Jots, Bloglines, and Elgg?  Then we have the complete  tool collection for Del.icio.us that will make your Del.icio.us experience even better as well as, the great Flickr tools collection for Flickr.

I found TechCrunch. It’s