Computer Teacher, Teach Thy Self!

Blogging /learning is changing me and given me the opportunity to help others. Today was day #2 for my “The Web 2.0 Educator” course. I had to chuckle to myself when my students gave me that dazed “my head is going to explode” glare. That feeling is a friend of mine, I have it quite often as I read the blogs of Will Richardson and David Warlick to name just a couple. Infact, David Warlick’s recent post in regards to blogging/learning really touched a note with me. I think I have mentioned before that I had long hoped for a career where I would be able to learn for a living. I feel like that has taken place in some small measure.

It’s about learning. Will Richardson is a learner, and he learns through his blog. Everyone he interacts with, who reads his blog, who blogs about his blog, who comments on what he’s written — is a potential teacher for him …and they come to his blog because they believe that he is a potential teachers for them.

The sense of accomplishment I felt when reading my class blogs was truly heart warming. Some of them got it on their first try! I didn’t get “it” (how to post) for a while after reading feeds and commenting. Here are two of them only one day after learning about Web 2.0 and setting up their blogs:

the video clip “Did you Know?” really opened my eyes to globalization and where we stand in comparison to the rest of the world. It’s kind of scary. I almost feel as if time is taking off without us and its so hard to catch up. We’re so advanced, yet other countries are so far ahead of us! I’m afraid that I won’t keep up with the fast pace shifting that’s occuring and won’t be as technology savvy as I’d like to think I am now. -Karen

When I take time to reflect on my job and the general state of education, I am troubled by the fact that we discourage our students from fully utilizing their technology knowledge. Most schools have strict policies regarding things like cell phones, IPods, and electronic devices. Is this the right attitude that school districts should have? Karl Fisch’s “What if?” presentation really hits this point home.-Jesse

Congratulations to the teachers who are taking risks and signed up for this class, and thank you to all the bloggers that I read and who have helped me. It is because of you all that I know anything to pass on to these excited educators.

image 1-http://headrush.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/schoolboy_1.jpg

I will write a more formal post later…..

A while ago I began moving my blog from Typepad to here at Edublogs getting caught up in this process and the holidays I have not done any blogging of my own.  I have still been reading my favorite blogs, but not spending any time on my own thoughts. 

Getting to the point… When I started blogging and using delicious, flickr, furl, tabblo, etc… I became so excited I couldn’t wait to teach my colleagues. So I decided to offer a course through the local teacher center.  I actually designed two courses, the Web 2.0 Educator I and II. 

Today while trying to get in the door with all my groceries I picked up the Teacher center course offerings book and there I was..(in the book that is). So after picking the groceries up off the floor I ran to the computer to blog quickly. I am so very excited and I love all that I have been learning, so now have even more motivation to blog! (the fire under the _ _ _ so to speak)