With all these resources and all these options - can I have two months to integrate it all?

Ah yes, the crux of it all -- how do I bring all of this wonderful discovery to life. The open sources are amazing. Wikis, blogs, and web quests certainly need to be used. And if nothing else, my vantage point regarding my student's cell phones and laptops is fresh and new -- enlightened.

I do not want to lose the valuable tools that I have encountered during this course, but we all know the tendency to forget and go back to what we used to do. I hate that.

Curtis Bonk wrote about how WE-ALL-LEARN. I am coming to discover that he is completely right. The only question remaining is how we will experience it -- with a 20th century teacher or a 21st century one.

“Learning should be active, fun, and filled with creative expression” (Bonk, 2009). How sad that we have to admit how un-fun most of our educational time is and still is for learners.

I'm willing to work on it! It can be better!

Cartoon Education: Goofy's Take on Things

My First WebQuest: Triangles

Well folks, yes, it's true. I have made my very own webquest.  I was skeptical, but now that I have labored through the process, I can see the immense value in it. Try it! Seriously, try it! I used Zunal.com. Great free website. They cannot make it easier for you.

Check out my triangles! Triangles Beyond the Text

Web 2.0 in my dreams, in my inbox, everywhere....

A month into this adventure in the world of educational Web 2.0 I am a saturated sponge. I have more ideas than an entire school year could hold, more login accounts than I thought possible, and yet I am happy about it.

Formulating a tech-onomy of my own based on Bloom's classic taxonomy was a pivotal process as well. The brain does some amazing things and I am coming to the realization that technology enhances are cognitive capabilities and experiences. As I begin to prepare my 2.0 pedagogy, I think it needs something different.

All the articles I read, the two texts and of course the experiences with the actual technology have enlightened me. I think I'll use the tech-onomy as a basis for the pedagogy. Well see...

3 minutes and 45 seconds that make you feel good about learning

This video popped up on my stream to the left, and I found it quite enjoyable. I am going to share it with my high school faculty to encourage them to keep learning along with our students!

Curriculum Sharing - Open School Concept

This article popped into my inbox this morning and I thought it was worthy of sharing. This notion of open curriculum and sharing could change education entirely! Think of the publication companies!

Radical Curriculum Sharing (by Todd Finley)

Many cool resources listed too!

Educational Networking: The Role of Web 2.0 in Education

Here's a wonderful synopsis of the marriage between education and Web 2.0 tools. At the end of the article, the following list has been charged to educators. This appears to be a good self-check for each of us to see how much Web 2.0 is influencing our practices.

Web 2.0 Building Blocks
Here’s a brief roundup of the features, or tools, that comprise Web 2.0 and that are commonly found in social and educational networks. By looking at them within the context of education, their usefulness for teaching and learning are pretty dramatically apparent.

Profile Page: In educational networking, the profile page is a purposeful representation of who you are that provides tangible and identifiable benefits to professional connecting. Not only does the profile page fulfill some of the tasks that a resume would, but it also provides a portal view to the content you’ve created or participated in on the network, becoming a dynamic e-portfolio.

Friending: While “friending” can have a terrible connotation, if you think “colleague,” this will quickly fall away. Now you have professional colleagues, and, if it’s not quite the same as eating lunch with your fellow teachers each day in the teachers’ lounge, your online colleagues may be more likely to share your direct interests and understand your specific challenges.

Forums: One of the great features that Ning networks strengthened was the discussion forum, through which discussions could take place over time (asynchronously) and were threaded (making them easy to read and follow). Having conversations gathered in one place where they’re easy to read and search takes discussion forums to a new level and often makes them the heart of an educational network.

Photo/Video/Audio/Document Uploading: The tools for uploading “resources” such as photos, videos, and documents take on new meaning in educational networking, enabling the kind of sharing that is so powerfully ingrained into the teaching profession. Uploading a lesson plan and tagging it so it can be easily found by others provides a platform for great collaboration.

Directory: While not formally called “directories,” in many networks, the combination of member listings with the ability to search for members based on their profile information helps members find each other and create a “colleague” relationship.

Event Calendars: Using this tool for educational purposes (e.g., highlighting professional development events or valuable broadcasts) makes an events module of significant value to an educational network.

Groups: Groups (smaller versions of networks) not only provide a way for existing affiliations or associations to expand, they also allow for new connections to be created, grown, and sustained around more thinly sliced interest areas, timely events, topical issues, ad-hoc projects, and much more.

Chat: Chat can provide a surprisingly meaningful way to use informal communication to get to know someone a thousand miles away. In a network made up largely of asynchronous communication tools, it provides the opportunity for immediate, synchronous responses and dialogue.

Hargadon, S. (2010, March 1). Educational networking: the role of web 2.0 in education [Web log message]. Retrieved from http://www.mmischools.com/Articles/Editorial/Features/Educational-Networking-The-Role-of-Web-2.0-in-Education-5bAvailable-Full-Text2c-Free5d-61342.aspx

Wiki Wiki Wiki

I've joined WetPaint and created my first wiki. So far so good!

Here it is... Teachers Exploring Wiki World

I hope some folks out there have some good things to contribute!

Tech-onomy Cycle

What kinds of learning activities, assessments, tools, strategies, assignments, and collaborations can we as teachers provide that will be most helpful to the changing cognitive domain?

True to form, today’s learning environment should incorporate technology and allow it to bolster educational experiences. We still need educators to make this happen properly, whether in person or across the globe, but technology has become pivotal.  I also think that education needs to question the purpose behind homework and assessment.  If the face of learning is changing and incorporating a higher level of collaboration and exploration, shouldn’t homework and assessment look somewhat different too?

I am about to do a seminar session for our teachers during faculty week where we explore the origins of grading and examine the relevance and impact of assessment formats. It is always eye-opening to think about these facets of education. They often are neglected despite their monumental impact on the daily lives of our students. We need to be more aware of the 24-hour cycle of adolescents. 

This question almost requires a list of resources to successfully address its need of types of learning tools, but looking to the left that is exactly what is posted on this blog – teacher resources chalked full of ideas. Start clicking those hyperlinks. I will say that it is easy to get caught up in new ideas and lose track of your content. After you’ve discovered a great new way to tackle one of your units, stop, take a deep breath and ask yourself “what is the point?” Bassett writes in his 2004 article about educational trends in technology and does a good job of depicting how much there is to navigate through.  While everyone is promoting technology, technology, it’s good to remember balance.

While my vision of the tech-onomy is primarily driven by technology (which it should be), I think it’s important to recognize the cognitive skills behind innovations.

Comprehension and memory involve discovery, asking and researching.

Evaluating requires judgment, choices, comparison.

Application and structure create experimentation, generation and record.

Bassett, Patrick. (2004). When technology works for schools. Independent School, 63(4)

In order to be successful in the world of their future tomorrows, how do our students of today need to process information?

Looking at the myriad of taxonomy examples, it’s clear that there is a long list of skills that people need to acquire for their future tomorrows, but what often remains neglected is the process by which they acquire those skills. I think this occurs due to the ever-changing Web 2.0 options at our fingertips. There are tons of ways to acquire skills for our adult lives. They are more readily accessible than ever, which you would think helps, but actually overwhelms us

Students of today need to process information for multiple purposes. First, they need to process to understand and remember. These tenets come directly from Bloom’s taxonomy.  We have to comprehend and place information properly before doing anything else. Once acquired, skills and information is analyzed and evaluated for its definition and worth. What is this? How can I use it? If we were making a smoothie, this part of the process would involve pressing the puree button and blending all the acquired elements together. Lastly, skills and information are applied as Bloom would say, and I need to add on that these things are also organized. Our minds must know where things are in memory and also how to categorize them in multi-dimensional ways.

My taxonomy will be graphic in nature (because I am visually minded) and simple. I think Bloom’s terms are still relevant to the digital age, but must be connected to the digital tools that execute them.  Here is an outline of where I am going with my tech-onomy: 

Remember/Understand – Comprehension based on discovery 
Evaluate/Analyze – Interaction combined with information 
Organize/Apply – Execution built on structural wisdom

Great Google Resource

In the midst of my search for information pertaining to my Web 2.0 dictionary, I stumbled onto a SlideShare presentation that had a great hyperlink buried in the slides for Google Educators. Check out these poster print outs to use in your classroom!

Another take on Web 2.0

Web 2.0 - Fact, Fiction and Function

View more presentations from Molecular Inc

Is our role the same as our predecessors? Is good teaching just good teaching? Is it really possible to pull units and files together and then teach the same year 25 times?

No. I know a number of people would argue with me on this, but no, our role as teachers is new and different.  By thinking about it differently, it allows us to embrace new elements of teaching with greater ease.  Do I like the idea of the traditional teacher? Yes. As a young student, I loved the idea of being a teacher (in the traditional sense). But, the reality of 2011 calls for something new. The job I once thought I would commit my life to does not exist anymore. Teaching is much more exciting and diverse in the 21st century!

How can we define good teaching within a new framework? Many people have done it. In a post entitled “Teaching Strategies, the Relevance of Teaching Strategies in the 21st Century,” the author inadvertently defines key factors of modern-day educators.  No epiphany exists here; the obvious elements are mentioned, but I will say this. Is good teaching just good teaching? I nod yes because I believe this question is alluding to the natural ability to help others learn. The gift. 

Do you remember the teacher that no matter what happened to interrupt the lesson for the day she nailed it? The teacher who somehow could throw her plan out the window in response to a new idea and still create a memorable learning experience? Good teaching is always good when you are a true educator. Technology driven or not, teachers in this category transcend time and educational trends.  Make no mistake about it, they are always open to better options, but regardless of how they implement learning, it works. The catch is, many educators do not have this quality and it is damaging to our profession. Enough said.

Apparently teachers carry axes

When I Googled "21st century teacher" for images, this was the first thing that popped up. This is much more descriptive and personality-filled than most of the graphics that came up with the search. This was inspired by Inspector Gadget. Should we think of teachers are inspectors of learning?

Okay, so if our students are different, does that mean we need to be different, too? What might a 21st century teacher look like?

While swimming in the thoughts and ideas of Bonk’s (2009) text The World is Open, many things come to mind, but without any hesitation I can say “yes” teachers need to be different than traditional educators in order to find success with 21^st century learners. Three key elements of this “new” teacher that come to mind are technology, collaboration, and flexibility. Technology goes without saying --- it was the premise for Bonk’s (2009) text. 

Moving forward students will continue to immerse themselves in new technology without hesitation. Teachers must do the same. I noted collaboration because the classic lecture model for the classroom, a one-way street, is no longer relevant.  Educators must embrace collaboration with their students for a two-way learning experience. I’ll make one final point regarding flexibility --- teachers need it.  Throw the control and plan away!  21^st century learning is much more varied and spontaneous. I’m not implying that we stop planning; no on the contrary, I am insisting that we plan well as teachers, but plan for a different type of 45 minute class period then what our predecessors may have done. Now, there are multiple, even many paths to comprehension and learning; not just the one you planned. Students need room to constructively discover your content even when it wasn’t your original plan.

Flexibility is actually a huge umbrella topic for teachers. It’s enormous because it undoes all the traditional ideas of perfection and control that our culture thinks teachers should have. Shouldn’t the students be somewhat in control of their learning too? This is the direction we’re headed in and while it makes me nervous (because I am a control freak), I know it is best!

Casting Off...

Welcome to my personal blog about discovering the world of Web 2.0 and its impact on my daily experiences as a teacher.  Formal and yet informal, this will be an adventure! I just finished reading The World is Open which truly opened my mind to new ideas about learning. I recommend!

Here we go!