Computer Teacher, Teach Thy Self!

While perusing my feeds I came across a phrase by Lucy Gray from the Infinite Thinking Machine

It’s not about “competing in a global economy” for me…it’s about experiencing all that the world has to offer. I want kids and other adults to realize that there is so much out there to discover and explore.

Lucy was discussing the Global Education Ning network and a meeting that had taken place with other educators around the world. I would love for the blocks in my school to be removed and have my students have access to social networks being used in a constructive manner like Ning.  All students should be exposed to the wealth of information in the Web 2.0 world, especially the students who never travel out of their city/town, or think that worldly exposure only comes to those who are privileged.  I was one of those kids, I am grateful that I am more globally minded now, but I can’t help wondering how my educational experience would have been different if the Web 2.0 tools were available back when I was in school.  (We didn’t even have the Internet then!)When I think about how much my life has changed because of the global mind set of Web 2.0 it is staggering. Everything down to the way I think has changed! For example on the personal subject of vaccinating my son- before I would use google or maybe a meta search engine to find results on vaccine reactions. I would filter through resources and sometimes be satisfied with the results but often I would be left with even more questions than before. Questions I would like to ask a person who has the subjective experience or resources I can use.

Instead I use my Netvibes to keep me up on new search results, where it all neatly gets filed under my ‘Vaccine’ tab.  I use others’ bookmarks in Del.icio.us  and share mine.  Subscribing to blogs is just another way another way I start my research, but I also gain valuable subjective experience.  To round everything out I usually post any comments in my New Moms Yahoo group where all our topics are neatly searchable for future reference.  In many ways using Web 2.0  it is like having a ‘hive’ mind.  (I can’t help the Star Trek reference) I can consume, produce and deliver more information now than I ever could, and none of my information is static, it is ever changing. Having access to people and resources around the world has completely altered my paradigm.  I  find News about the U.S. through other countries to get a varied perspective on the current state of affairs.  Five years ago I doubt I would have even thought about the ‘lens’ that articles and News comes from, blogging has taught me to look deeper.

While trying to get back into the swing of reading thinking and posting I just wanted to bring attention to Kim Cofino’s efforts in the blog Connect Web 2.o.

I inspired by the global connections Kim has made and hope to do the same with my 7-8th graders. The Middle School has given me the opportunity to develop a computer class elective for the 7 and 8th grade. Making connections and increasing the ideal of a global classroom is my end in mind. Now I just need to find the doorway project that will allow me to do this.

Right now my students are using iMovie and creating commercials, some of them are pricless!
Perhaps we can do a movie in “a day in the life of..” or something to illustrate the digital nature of student life.

I have been reading many posts lately that express frustration about getting admin and teachers alike involved in utilizing Web 2.0 tools in the classroom. I have to admit that I go in and out of these phases of frustration but I don’t think that the battle is all up hill.

In one of his posts Will Richardson writes about the frustration he is experincing as a parent and an educator when he fails to see new pedagogies developed to aid our students in creating new learning networks.  One quote that I found poignant :

I know in many ways it stinks to have to be an educator at a moment in history when things are changing on a glacial scale. But what you signed up for is preparing kids for their futures. You have little choice but to deal.

Another Blogger I read quite a bit is Kim Confino, she is another realtively new blogger whose Web 2.0 curriculum is far more developed than mine. I like that while she expresses frustration she also keeps in mind that she is also learning and that teachers are just intimidated like all of us.  A line that stood out was that we are all learning, at break neck speed (as my old Prof would say)..

It’s a mind-set more than a skill-set. We just have to want to try and learn, to be open to new challenges, and open to the possibilities of both success and failure.

Blogging, RSS, Web 2.0 is all very daunting to learn, forget about employing in the class. I firmly believe though that it begins with us. It is because of people like Will, then David Warlick and now Jeff Utecht that I got started. It is other young bloggers like Kim Cofino that keep me going. I don’t post often and I hope to get better, I don’t really like the layout of my blog, I will change it. I am learning, and I do firmly believe that at some point we as educators will have no choice but to utilize Web 2.0 tools and have fully developed pedagogies. 

One way I am doing this is by offering web 2.0 inservice courses to my teachers. This is also forcing me to keep current and to take the risk of making mistakes. My next mistake may be that : I really have no concept of “trackbacks” and I am going to send a few out and hope for the best.

The very begining to blogging is to start reading blogs. One of my favorite bloggers once said ( I am paraphrasing) “when I don’t blog it doesn’t mean I don’t have enough time to write, I don’t have enough time to read”. Blogging takes on many different steps. The first of which is reading, being aware of how others blog.  I have about 30 “feeds” that I try to read on a daily basis. ( Some of the bloggers I look up to read 200+ feeds a day!) From these blogs I find out about new technology, D.O.P.A reform, and online resources that I currently use to learn about Web 2.0.

 In the book Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts Will Richardson suggests that using an aggregator to find and continue reading blogs you find relevant is and important first step. We will eventually explore bloth Bloglines and Netvibes as a resource to keep your feeds organized. 

Your assignment:

Look at Will Richardson’s blog post on what is happening in a Middle School class using the book Guerrilla Season. Will Richardson who did something similar in his journalism class writes:

Just a quick link to another example of how teachers can use blogs to enhance the reading of a book in class by extending conversations past the school day, linking to resources and relevant materials, inviting parents to read and study with their children, inviting students from other parts of the country to collaborate and have students learn directly from interacting with the author of the book. What a concept!

1. Explain how your perception of education would change if all your teachers were using Web 2.0 technology as a part of regular instruction. 

2. Why do you think this type of education is also called learner centered?

3. In a mature fashion, please describe how you feel teachers could change to motivate you to study and participate in class more?

Please write your full name and class period to recieve credit.

I have not posted in a few days; I thought I had a deep moment with the last post, but no comments so I became discouraged. Earlier today I was going through the chapter on RSS in my current bible Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts.  While playing around with folders and organizing my feeds I checked a new feed on Adventures in Educational Blogging. 

In her Blog Susan Sedro, offered great advice to another relatively new blogger who was feeling overwhelmed.  At first I read and re-read Susan’s post in Adventures in Educational Blogging. (She offers great advice on how to manage the implementation of blog curriculum)  Then, I decided to take a look at the novice blogger she was referencing. After all, I am only a few days into this and feeling very unsure of myself in the blogosphere, another newbie would be great to commune with. 

Kim Cofino’s   Always Learning blog is moving along nicely, and she had already started to implement great blogging lesson plans into her curriculum.  One line of her current post summarized how I was feeling:

For a while there I was feeling so far behind that I didn’t want to demonstrate my “late-adopter-ness” by posting things that everyone knows already.

Boy did I identify with that! Then she mentions how she found this post that made her realize that there were so many other teachers out there that felt the same way. When I followed the link …It was MY BLOG she was referencing! I got goose bumps, and then I think I “got” blogging

I have posted 3 days in a row now which is a new record for me. my habit would be to start a blog, post and then forget about it. I have continued to read Will Richardson’s book on blogging. Yesterday I started the section on Wikis and I was a little confused.

This morning I was talking to my student teacher who was demonstrating a new method of longterm planning.  Much of it reminds me of the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, begin with the end in mind.  We downloaded a year by the month template from the “MS/Office”site. Next we filled in my vacation and conference days.  What was left over scared me.  I don’t know how I am going to cover Word, Excel, PowerPoint, introduce Mac OS Tiger, (We are a dual platform lab) and then finally fit in blogging, Furl, and aggregators. This is a semester long course, so I have basically have less than 5 months to cover all this material.

Calgon take me away! I want to be a great computer teacher. I want to walk out of that lab with my kids running to the Library lab because they want to do more on their own. I just don’t know how to get it all done.

Well once I finish my longterm planning I will post it so anyone else may be able to make use of it. Hopefully using this template will help me to find a way to get it all in.

Just looking at Weblogg-ed to see a new deveopment in YouTube that really got me thinking. (Okay, I didn’t even know about YouTube until today).  Apparently an on going video story called LonelyGirl15 was very popular and had many debating on it possiblly being a hoax. Personally I thought the videos were good! Defiinitly something my students would love to do!

What an amazing opportunity for our students to represent themselves to the world audience. Last year after attending a conference that featured Will Richarsdon I became very curious about the blogosphere and how I can use this to teach my Computer Applications students.

The idea of WikiTV is amazing. To just think of the implications it could have for
Junior and Sophmores who will be looking into colleges. Just imagine a student digital storytelling, but the story is about them!  In fifteen minutes of time a college admissions counselor could view a digital narrative that goes so far beyond a bland essay. 

A student could show volunteer work, student life, athletics, teacher interviews, slides of completed work, and share family stories with a slide show of music and pictures.  School concerts, athletic events, volunteer work would no longer be simply 2 dimensional on a piece of paper but alive and breathing with the texture of storytelling.