Cloudy Tag Thoughts

0.0

TEACHER 0.0

STRANGER!
if you, passing, meet me, and desire to speak to me, why should you not
speak to me?    And why should I not speak to you? - Walt Whitman

If by chance we meet on a road. . .           along a path. . .                           or during an odyssey. . .

Use the skills you know to communicate, because the Read Write Web is every teachers' responsibility to know and help our students learn. . . learn to be creators and organizers of content=ideas not just passive consumers.

beyond the dots. . .


beyond the dashes. . .

Ones and Zeros first began with. . .
Morse code the 19th century and the transatlantic cable between NY and London that allowed for real time data and interaction.

And place no longer matters as learning is happening all over the world. Ideas from any one teacher everywhere can be available to everyone. A classroom project can be seen by everyone. This is what is called a flat world. . .

And the data and information and knowledge to become a 21st Century teacher is not decided upon or settled by any one teacher or place in the world. . .

TODAY

come write, determine, participate, and share the knowledge with us

go all the way to Timbuktu

chat speak listen respond write

    Teacher X.0!

I was in the chat in Classroom 2.0 and Lisa Parisi made me think of the importance of beginnings, beginners and being open to learn, and I've always tried to abide by that feeling too. The first time I learned of someone believing in this was when a teacher of mine quoted Albert Einstein "He who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed," for a "conceptual design" department (this link is from Stephen Wilson, who has been a constant presence) class in my art department. So I remember creating a small box with a view hole, plastic baby, mirrors, and cotton and taping to the side a walkman playing over and over "retain the child within you," and that's when "childlike fascination and sense of wonder," first came to form a phrase in my mind that I remember. Trying to find the A.E. quote I stumbled upon this page of artists reflecting on the word "wonder."

Lately I refer and share in many instances when trying to show, how we should work together to learn Web 2.0 tools, Carolyn Foote's Beginner's Mind. I used this and chose for my playful application Moolvl for a presentation I made for my school district.

photo sources:
Image: 'Roofie'
www.flickr.com/photos/49503155549@N01/238573192
Image: 'Peek-a-Boo'
www.flickr.com/photos/57038667@N00/476731882
Image: 'Tree path'
www.flickr.com/photos/32863204@N00/241899410
Image: 'Odysseus and Tiresias'
www.flickr.com/photos/36021911@N00/75102722Image: 'Holes'
www.flickr.com/photos/31426589@N00/119131442Image: 'dots'
www.flickr.com/photos/76014095@N00/400696203
Image: 'green dots'
www.flickr.com/photos/50367113@N00/17828926
Image: 'Ladybug (FI-22993)'
www.flickr.com/photos/57267425@N00/140266515Image: 'Red + White Ball'
www.flickr.com/photos/12074797@N00/17952630
Image: 'The Stronghold'
www.flickr.com/photos/95492938@N00/219852893Image: 'and who are you?'
www.flickr.com/photos/77467550@N00/290274557
Image: 'IMG_3453'
www.flickr.com/photos/54087404@N00/155629109
Image: 'geeks'
www.flickr.com/photos/54903723@N00/20318677Image: 'IMG_3454'
www.flickr.com/photos/54087404@N00/155629110Image: 'Who needs a hybrid anyway?'
www.flickr.com/photos/90832828@N00/1675538078
Image: 'volvo'
www.flickr.com/photos/37996575334@N01/288095
Image: 'Sum blu cawr'
www.flickr.com/photos/15245443@N00/1300476032
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/51/Flatland_cover.jpg/200px-Flatland_cover.jpg
Image: '6569'
www.flickr.com/photos/98572879@N00/276168731Image: 'First Impressions'
www.flickr.com/photos/15401080@N00/88760582
Image: 'Djingareyber Mosque'
www.flickr.com/photos/44124370103@N01/60323
Image: 'Angel Oak MK3'
www.flickr.com/photos/91178396@N00/470623754

Blogged with Flock

Tags: flickrcc, edtech, photoblog, beginnng

Can an Evolutionist and a Creationist both be part of one's personal learning network?

For myself I think there is still a disconnect in my relationship to others for whom I haven't met face to face but interact with online only. Just the same as my students this week who had difficulty being quiet when Wes Fryer was sharing his thoughts on his Ustream presentation for the ProTechT project because he wasn't a live speaker in our class. I feel a connection but also a certain distance to people I interact with on networks like Twitter, Second Life, and Ning.

I've enjoyed David Weinberger and many of his ideas on altering the hierarchical thinking of how we organize ideas and thoughts since I saw him for the first time giving the opening keynote presentation at the NECC in Philidelphia. He comes to mind because for his recent book he used the title Everything is Miscellaneous and for the most part I prefer listening to him speak of his ideas such as his presentation on the topic at places such as Google. During the New Hampshire primaries while the student Arthus was sharing his ideas on the political candidates via Ustream, the issue came up of one of my favorite edtech people being a Creationist, later on another of my favorite edtech bloggers took Arthus to task for not pressing the issue from an Evolutionist perspective and offered to take on the person in a debate. I myself don't feel a need to debate someone who believes in the Creationist philosophy and wondered if that is a justifiable passiveness on my part or a disconnect from these virtual relationships. I don't know of anyone in my circle of friends where I live as being a Creationist I do know that I have been emotional and very moved by direct messages and communication with people on Skype and Twitter that I haven't met face to face. The thought that came to mind is "if everything is miscellaneous," then is truth just another tag in the virtual universe with no more real meaning than the electrons it takes to create the text in displays? How can I as a science teacher not argue for further examination of the motivations of someone to side on one side of the argument which is in opposition to how I teach and believe in?

Blogged with Flock

Tags: edtech

Meme: Passion Quilt

Following the meme sent me by Miguel Guhlin, I'm posting my picture for what I am most passionate about to be part of the passion quilt. When my students use tools for learning such as computers I typically ask them to work and participate in teams. I used FlickrCC to find this image.

Caption for this Quilt Image: Project Based Learning and Teamwork

The five people I'm tagging are:
Ann Oro
Jo McLeay
Pam Shoemaker
Tom Barrett
Jeff Whipple

3 Simple Meme Rules:

• Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about...and give your picture a short title.
• Title your blog post "Meme: Passion Quilt" and link back to this blog entry.
• Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

reference: www.flickr.com/photos/30864080@N00/131488403

Blogged with Flock

Tags: meme

The Incredible Mr. Limpet and Second Life

Having been enjoying the many resources available in Second Life, I realized that the environment is growing on me. I was trying to think of what in my childhood were some of the experiences that could have prepared me to accept its "cartoonish" nature. I thought back to one of my strongest emotional experiences involving cartoons and that had to be when I watched the movie, The Incredible Mr. Limpet, one night at my aunts while all the adults were having a discussion at the kitchen table.

In the movie Don Knotts wants to be a fish, and in this instance his wish is fulfilled. But for a child like myself that loved watching cartoons, here was someone who got to become a cartoon. Relative to Mr. Limpet, the creators of Second Life have chosen flying rather than swimming as a primary way to experience the new physics of this environment. Swimming here seems more like the video games in which after you've fallen off the path you have to move slowly through a sludge like environment. Perhaps someone will come up with a "penguin" mode so a person can sail through the water.

I remember being caught up in the movie as the two worlds of Limpid collided and interweaved, but the essential message was that being a cartoon underwater was a place were one's dreams could come true relative to the harsh and unfair real world. He becomes a hero, falls in love, and with the help of his friend Crusty, defeats the Nazi submarine navy. At the end of the movie as Limpid swam off in the sea and his "oogah" sounds faded off I remember the tears welling up in my eyes and feeling sad. Was it because the two worlds that he had been in were going to forever be separated? I can't be sure because getting back to how I felt I only remember the sadness.

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Lesson Learned

For numerous reasons I haven't posted much in the past year. Why start posting again? I think I've altered my stance on learning about technology tools that don't relate or I can't implement for my students to use. Last winter/spring there was a lot of excitement over the use of Twitter and Second LIfe. I half-heartedly set up accounts but didn't go much beyond that. I realized right away that I wouldn't be having my 4th and 5th grade students twittering or creating avatars anytime soon. Now however I realize that for some things I need to learn them regardless of having direct applicability to my students. In fact I felt rather disconnected to the edutech bloggesphere (is that spelled with two "g"s or one?) by not learning more about them. My RSS reader was full of articles that I couldn't relate to. Instead of trusting the educators and bloggers whom I've grown to feel close to through their writing, I let my own personal growth lapse and I suffered because of it. Lesson, some things I need to learn for myself and the fun of doing so just because. So if you haven't tried something, but all the brightest people you read are, I would recommend doing something about it.

Blogged with Flock

Tags: edutech

How do you Handle your Student's Data Streams?

I thought I had a glimpse the other day on why I'm fascinated by data streams big and small. For my students I feel connected to them, somewhat maternal, I have a better knowledge of when and what they like to work on. I know which of them has been working and solving the puzzle of Wikispaces. I feel secure and protective that everything is ok with them. I can feel connected to them even when I've been to the dentist and not taught at school that day. Many students that are the least successful on the standardized assessments shine and grow on the  production of virtual code, data, pictures, sounds, real time flow. Am I moving to a place where the stream as source is what I crave? Too impatient to wait for the archival process. Is Wikipedia . . . I have a bad habit of working in fits and starts, but streams even when down to a trickle still flow. How do you handle your data streams? I put them in places they don't belong. My Entourage email box fills with tiny little edits, and I let it be because the steps are small but just as important as many other items that fill my email. I keep multiple copies of these streams through RSS and I have apps. and web apps. so that I can look and play with the data, or let the data play with me. Streams, got to keep the streams flowing and becoming more meaningful, the path of conversation and learning. I've never understood completely certain books, but have my own vision of what they hold. An example of one of those is the noosphere of Teilhard de Chardin. All that data circling over head and through us the Wifi photo microwave cellphone voice internet video streams. . .

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Tags: edtech

What's with the negative vibes?

I just came home from a long day at school, filling out paper forms by hand for the conferences that will be happening in a few weeks, setting aside three days of math homework that I have to key into my electronic grade book like a good data entry clerk. I had tried to email someone within my district about an iMovie festival that they were asking advice about, but the server was down. I left school and had to go to a hobby store to spend money buying clay because I'd miscalculated how much I needed for two sections of social studies. I spent as usual part of my day griping about the feet dragging that I have to overcome to get someone to appreciate a cool web app. that I've dreamed up some lesson for. Some days are like that but, I always enjoy coming home and firing up my Bloglines account to get inspired by the likes of David Warlick and Will Richardson to name a couple of my favorites. Today, there was more frustration than usual, but guys some day I wish I could be so connected deep in the conversation, attending the conferences that I vicariously read about through your postings, getting to meet the innovators and directly experience classrooms where best practices occur. You help me be the learner I am, the advocate for change and the critical need for information literacy. You help me continue reaching to achieve a higher place in my development as a teacher and learner. You are among the indispensable group that I treasure and I just wanted you to know that. As "Oddball" (Donald Sutherland) said in Kelly's Heroes, "Whats with the negative vibes?"

Technorati Tags: dwarlick, edtech, education, willrich

Don't they get it? How can they until background/schema is given?

Many edtech bloggers including Will Richardson and Bud Hunt have been linking to a powerpoint presentation by Karl Fisch on his blog The Fischbowl: Did You Know? I watched and enjoyed the presentation with that same sort of "yes, why don't more people get this," that now extends through various postings and books that are becoming part of a conversation, as Will would put it, that are too innumerable to list and that most teachers using RSS understand. It reminds me of the dilemma of how much to teach a person about the hardware of a computer and whether this will help them understand better what is happening on the screen in front of them. If you used DOS and old command line computers does this now make it easier to understand how a graphical interface changes back slashes into folders? A part of me thinks that much of these tools will go through the same process of something like email, not having a known use and so neglected, embraced but without ease of use and usage agreements, to familiar and essential. I hope! Teaching to the standards does not consider the medium as inherently important but the evaluation or assessment and the showing a student is meeting the skill is. Why use a computer when there is not enough to go around and when we already have a 1 to 1 pencil and paper/book interface?

My initial reaction after watching the presentation was to connect many of the decision makers and teachers in my district, who look at how technology is used in our schools, to either the blog or the powerpoint file. Later on however, I realized that the sources Karl used for the presentation would be unknown to these people. He could have been pulling this information out of the air for all they know. I myself wasn't familiar with some of the information. I remembered some of the facts from The World is Flat, and David Warlick's and Will Richarson's presentation that I saw at the NECC over the summer. And so the dilemma as it came to me has to do with not only about source and value, but also that we need to have commonality amongst teachers who are new to this and teachers that have been participating for some time in this discussion. There was a posting on Will's site about citing of sources and primary sources a week or so ago and elsewhere, and I find it ironic that I would consider sharing a power point presentation that did not thoroughly present it's sources and did not analyze with the same scrutiny that I would for a text based blog posting. I keep wondering if Alan November is right when he said at the NECC that when someone tries to go from one medium to another they lose and forget the skills in which they analyze and question content and so we don't teach our students what we ourselves have abandoned. With text sources we teach the students about glossaries, indexes, citing sources, but how about information literacy for the new medium of the internet? Alan November Weblog : How much do you know about Information Literacy?How can I suggest professional development when someone doesn't even know that it is needed?

I was thrilled at the NECC in San Diego when I saw the poster labeled School 2.0 from the U.S. Department of Education Home Page. I 've been signed up for the RSS feed for sometime, but neither that or periodic searches with the web site have yielded any results. 

Technorati Tags: edtech, education, technology

Delivering and Questioning the Computer

I'm glad I've had this break from the kids. It reminds me of what I did over the summer. Wake up and drink coffee while writing in my paper journal, fire up my Bloglines account, just start reading and thinking, and decide on possible topics to blog about. Why does it take me several days to get into that meta-cognitive state in which I can more easily learn about learning? Two big areas I've been focussed on is how to deliver the instructions on using the internet apps/tools, and about the justifications/reasons for using the tools. Brian Lamb's "big fat lousy screencast" really hit the spot with his musings over potential applications and excellent examples as well as showing what Snapzprox can do (I'd downloaded the demo several years ago but didn't think it worth the cost). It's not thorough, but thoughtful and spontaneous. The related wiki has the links for further exploration. Back when I started teaching my ELD students the steps for a software application I would just do a screen grab and write on the printout. I've found that the program called Flysketch does that as well as several other tasks. I've been demoing an interactive whiteboard unit from Luidia and I like the potential use by my students to brainstorm content for their podcast groups and print it out. I'm also excited about the ability to save what I write (Quicktime demo) for students challenged by taking notes or attention issues. It's not as sophisticated as a Smartboard, but I can afford it. I also enjoyed looking at Mix-Rip-Burn which is a Web 2.0 presentation by a math teacher named Darren Kuropatwa. I add these site to my collection of good resources for those teachers at my school that have enough interest and time to invest in what this is all about.

Finally, getting down to the nitty gritty of asking myself why introduce these tools into an elementary classroom. I spend so much more time as I set up this technology pursuing this task then any other teacher at my school. Of course what would anyone rather do, grade papers or install some cool software/tool that does something that was impossible or too technical for the likes of me five years ago.  I keep prefacing and apologizing for what I am doing when I share with other teachers by saying that this is my passion, and in a way I can trace this back to the sleepless nights before I was a teacher. There I was learning to create web sites back in 1995 and leaving my classes at the SFSU downtown campus buzzing with so many ideas about finally being a part of a new medium that I couldn't sleep. What struck me then was that a few letters separated a Disney website from a local individual website. The truth is I left the program after realizing I didn't want to sit behind a computer for eight hours without interacting with people, but that is so Web 1.0. I have to thank Will Richardson as usual for giving me food for thought as well as another blog to add to my ungainly and in need of organization, bloglines account. His article "Uneasy Classroom Space" gets at the heart of what I am always asking myself. Is there worth in putting in hours of work while my colleagues after writing down and preparing for book based lessons go home? Am I preparing my students for the flattened world of Thomas Friedman Video, for skills that they will need in a way that is more efficacious then traditional models of teaching and learning? Barbara Ganley does an excellent and much better job then myself of articulating the dilemma and self-doubt which confronts any thoughtful educator about using these tools. I can say from my own experience that the use of blogs has made my students begin to interact with each other's writing in a way that I could never create through an Author's Chair format. I find moving their serious reading, respect, and praise of each other. Before the current state of the tools we have now I think that Lowell Monke does make some valid points, but the example he uses involved individual presentations using software intended for that purpose (a person as source presenting their ideas for a passive audience). I've never fully embraced multi-media CD's or even really liked to use a lot of videos in the class because so much of it involved the content one on one with the single passive participant/viewer. In creating content with these new tools I can't think of a better way to give the students the necessary information literacy (recent article I came across) they need and begin processing the content behind much of what they are exposed to. When I had my students create a powerpoint project, what struck me was the chart paper I put up so students could ask questions, write comments to each other, request help or offer to help someone in need. My use of computers is to transition that level of student centered access to information and interactivity between students to web logs, wikis, social bookmarks, etc.

Technorati Tags: education, screencasts, technology

What I expect. . .

Now that the summer doldrums are upon, us several of my favorite bloggers/educators are reflecting on their processing of the superabundance of information and also the importance and use of conference presentations. I think the first post I noticed which started this was Dave Weinberger and his admitance of not following everyone's weblogs, and later Will Richardson also said that the post "rings true for me," followed by Ken Smith, etc. etc. Their ideas are so important for me that responding to posts is less important to me than processing ideas. Later I was reading what Richard MacManus posted about the bot/automator services that glean information mechanically and post the aggregated feeds.  I was reminded of my studies of information/interface design and reading of books by Brenda Laurel, and how she was always putting the needs of a human user first and the importance of the humanistic (value driven) approach to computer software. Is there a need for a human behind the interface and information? What do I expect for the time I put in to reading or (now with podcasts) listening to the posts? I want more than a mechanical reposting of information. I want opinions and honest reflection. To me these posters are like my avatars of the virtual world. I have no contact with them, I know nothing about them as people except for the slow process of gaining a simple understanding what they are like through their words. I don't expect them to keep track of every scrap of information tagged with "education" and "technology." I do expect them to respond, critique, and evaluate what they are exposed to because as a teacher I won't be going to all the conferences they attend and be involved in conversation with all the people they meet face to face. I don't have the time to attend very many conferences during the school year, and I didn't go to the NECC conference because I couldn't afford to. But come next year, I look forward to seeing them present in San Diego which is only a 6 or 7 hour drive from Cupertino. And this brings up my last point. When I go to see David Warlick, I think his use of the wiki to present the information/handouts and allow the audience to contribute is an excellent compromise and use of the limited time he has (this reinforces the necessity of wifi, which I'd read was unreliable at NECC). I can also see the benefit as Steve Dembo talked about of having a video/quicktime movie of what will be presented ahead of time. My initial response is that teaching/presenting is a performance and even when I move to the facilitator side of the spectrum in terms of my presence in the classroom I still must hold the attention of the students/audience, and having never been a presenter I wonder whether I could repeat a lesson and make it as interesting the second time around.

So here's to the humans overwhelmed with information, shining lights, who accept the responsibility and gravity of what they do. The technology I have implamented in my classroom, I have done on my own with the virtual, indirect influence, and enthusiam of those I have mentioned as well as others I need to list on the side of my blog. At my school I couldn't get anyone else interested in blogging and had no peers or colleagues to bounce ideas off of. So for those educators/bloggers, you don't have to follow the trail of my thinking nor respond to my ideas, but follow your heart in what is best for teaching children because for that I expect nothing less than the best.

Technorati Tags: blogs, education