Blog for Thing 1 and Thing 2

I am participating in 23 Things because of the personal and professional need to say on top of trends in (educational) technology. The more that I know, the more I can bring to my classroom, students, and colleagues. I hope to learn how to make better use of teh resources available at my school so that teh students are better engaged and educated.

As for Thing 1 - Wow. This gave me a lot to think about. Could a staff be so unified as to bring an undertaking such as this to fruition? My mind raced, as I read this article, hypothesizing the necessary skill set that needed to be possessed by both the students and educators in order to make this model a reality. Sure there are still reading and writing involved. But there is also great need for skills development in keyboarding, collaborative learning, critical thinking, resource and information acquisition, as well as technology integration. Pretty heady stuff, huh? However, these skills are exactly what students are already developing on their own as they text message, surf the Internet, play video games, and interact with their peers. Wouldn't it be outstanding if the schools could seize on this richness of student potential and direct it in ways beneficial to both the learner and society?

The interesting thing is that many schools already possess the hardware and technology infrastructure to allow this to exist in schools today. It seems to me that the greatest element preventing schools from accomplishing dynamic change is, as President Franklin D. Roosevelt stated, “Fear itself.” Fear in trying something “new.” Fear in not knowing all the answers to all the questions. Fear that the students will be empowered to such a degree the staff will have to play “catch up” with technology. Fear in acknowledging that how we have educated students in the past is simply not the way to reach students today (and in reality, the way we need to reach students today may not be the way we need to reach them in the future). We need to get past our fears so that we can move on with matters of substance.

The video, “Pay Attention,” elicits powerful thoughts. It provided a lot of current facts, information and provides a vision for learning and instructional development for the future. The media elements (dynamic single instrument music, no dialogue, screen text in varied speed and format) made the delivery of the information meaningful and poignant (can we say the same of the lessons that we present to our students?). Due to the style in which it was produced, this was created to hold a person's attention. Much like the way technology changes in our society; if you do not pay close attention to the video, you will miss something. This would be a worthy video to show any district curriculum development committee at the onset of their work.

"How does writing on the Internet, knowing anyone could read it, change how you write or feel about writing?" is a great question! I have never had difficulty stating my mind (rightly or wrongly). Afterall, opinions are like bellybuttons: everyone has one. Years of teaching and sending weekly newsletters home to parents has made me comfortable in writing. However, writing on the Internet does cause me to choose my words carefully. I find that I, being a fairly guaded person, I do not want to share too much personal information in these blogs. Safety and privacy issues race through my mind when on line.

I look forward to more as I continue through these 23 things.