Multi-faceted Refractions

A great looking group that keeps inspiring and pushing me in ways that I did not know existed. Thank you.

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Ryan Bretag, the Director of Technology at neighboring Glenbrook North, presented with David Jakes this past weekend at EduCon. During their session, Ryan stated:

I’m one that believes teachers should be actively engaged in most of the things they bring into the classroom especially when it comes to various pieces of participatory media. For example, I tend to see blogging as critical for teachers to be actively engaged with if they are to expect their students to do it.

In his most recent blog post, Teacher’s First, he was reflecting about the comment from a virtual guest, as shared by Paul Norwood, that:

“Does a flight controller need to be a pilot to land planes or does a sports radio host need to play sports to discuss sports?”

I want to acknowledge that it was I who responded with the fact that I am not sure that we require air traffic controllers to have landed airplanes before they do their job. I also used as an example that we don’t ask circus ringmasters to have been shot from a cannon, fly on the trapeze, or be in the lion cage before doing their tasks.

In all cases, air traffic controller, ring master, and teacher, one needs to have the wisdom to manage and guide others while managing the chaos that sometimes occurs in each of these different arenas.

Some of the teachers who do some of the most interesting work integrating technology into the learning (teaching) environments do not have a full understanding of how the technology and all of the items “behind the curtain” work. What they do have is a great understanding of the experiences that they want their students to have, thought out essential questions, and realization that these new tools, while they may not completely understand them, provide a level of student learning and engagement that they were unable to achieve using more traditional means.

That said, to have an awareness of the power of the tool, they do not need to blog. They have to know what a blog is, and they have to understand the power of the connections that can happen as a result. It does not matter whether  they gain that through blogging themselves, through reading and commenting on blogs, or trusting respected colleagues, mentor, or guides.

The important thing is that they simply choose the route which is best for themselves, have confidence in their ability to mentor and manage learners along the journey.

In order to beat the Winter Blahs, the Library and Technology Staff challenged the faculty and staff to set a personal technology learning goal. We emailed the following to members of our school community:

Make and Keep a Technology New Year’s Resolution

New Year’s Day is a great time to set new goals and start creating new habits.

Did you set a personal technology learning goal for the New Year?

Did you receive a new camera for the holidays and you need to learn how to download or edit the pictures?

Is there a technology topic, such as setting up a course in Moodle, creating a Google Custom Search, how to create a digital story using PhotoStory or VoiceThread, how to use Microsoft OneNote, create a screencast using Jing, that you would like to learn?

Would you like to learn how to use additional features of NoodleBib?

Interested in how to access and edit Discovery Streaming Videos for use in your classes,  that you have heard about or seen and want to spend the time exploring and learning?

For the past two Tuesdays, we have had 7% of our faculty and staff stop by at our informal Technology Resolution sessions. (This does represent a rate of return than is typically achieved by direct mail response) During these sessions, we guide and mentor the faculty and staff towards their goal. It has been extremely successful and rewarding. The faculty and staff who are coming have technology skills which run the spectrum from being what I would consider our most adept users of technology to those who have been apprehensive.

They have wanted to learn how to:

• Add websites and files to their Moodle course
• Download their pictures from their camera so that they don’t have to rely on their children to do so
• Set up a blog
• Set up a flickr account and upload pictures
• Create an group email, to email parents of sports teams, neighborhood, etc.
• Learn how to create the class push page
• Learn how to create a PowerPoint presentation

What is great is that in each of these cases, the individual created a personal learning goal which was not directly related to what they do in the classroom or as a part of their job description. However, in each case, the individual learned something that they have been able to transfer to what they do as a part of their job or in their classroom. This is higher order transfer of skills.

We have two more sessions that we have advertised and we are trying to figure out how to maintain the momentum while keeping the concept fresh. I am really excited about what the model and how we have grown the offerings.

Once again, this weekend, I had the opportunity to participate in a great learning experience. First off, my hat is off to Chris Lehmann and the students, faculty and staff at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia for organizing and putting together EduCon. For the past three years, I have helped organize a Science Olympiad invitational for 20 schools (500+ students). It is a great undertaking, taking tremendous support and volunteers to make the event successful. From everything that I have heard, the event was spectacular, with minimal issues. Quite a task to host almost 400 educators for an entire weekend.

Secondly, I want to thank Chris for beign forward thinking enough to open the conference, making the content available simultaneously for free. Having students film each presentation which allowed those of us, who were unable to attend the conference, the ability to engage in the conversation at the same time. Sure, there were occasional glitches (no sound), but that is the price to pay for free access. There were several great conversations, from Bud Hunt’s and Antonio Viva’s  presentation on Saturday, the opening panel, John Pedersen, Alec Couros, and Konrad Glogowski’s conversations on Saturday. I also want to give a special acknowledgement to Ryan Bretag and David Jakes for trying to incorporate and include the chat room as an active member of the conversation.

I am still trying to process the conversations. One of my biggest concerns lately is that once again, the conversation is occuring in the echo chamber. How does change occur? How does change, across the board happen?

In my last post, I asked the faculty and staff if they had created a technology goal that they wanted to learn. Wanting to be a good role model, I decided that I had to set a technology resolution also.

My resolution is to give Second Life a second chance. 18 months ago, I dipped my toes into Second Life, but at that time, I didn’t see the educational implications. I just didn’t get it.

The last time I had this experience is with Twitter. I had created an account and began to play with it, but just didn’t get it. It wasn’t until I expanded my network at NECC 2007 in Atlanta and the next few months after that I truly understood the impact and potential of Twitter.

So, over the next six weeks, I will try to visit Second Life two to three times a week, so that hopefully, I will begin to make it a habit. I am hoping this time, I will be able to connect with the mentors who will allow me to discover the potential that Second Life promises.

I will keep an open mind.