Colorado Conversation: Learning Is Change February 23, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Conference Sessions.1 comment so far
Ben Wilkoff, Cresthill Middle School (DCSD) – Starts with a discussion about learning. What is learning? Lots of different ideas, which reinforces my own working definition. Learning is an individual journey to know yourself, and your place in the world.
The presentation from Learning is Change does a nice job of asking the question: http://learningischange.com/
The next question to spur conversation is: How do you create context? Is connecting a way to create context? Is community? Is currency? Ben brought his students to the Students 2.o blog to provide a conversation. His students started from there and extended the conversation to their own world. One teacher in the room said that he has a ‘no tech’ zone in his classroom to limit the wired connections. It is quite true that technology doesn’t create quality learning or teaching. Someone else made the point that technology is just another tool. The demands of the content, and the standardized tests, sometimes limit the connections or context that can be created in the classroom.
Ben moved along to Google Docs and a conversation his class had around the book The Lord of the Flies. Guiding questions around utopia/distopia are placed in a Google Doc and the students work in small groups to respond. What is collaboration? For me, it is a setting that allows for the opportunity for participation and input from every member of the group.
Change directed classrooms: “All knowledge is constantly changing, and so are students’ understanding and demonstration of knowledge.”
Conversations are another component to developing context. Context is also a Continuous process that isn’t limited to a single classroom but relies on access.
Where do we go from here? How do we make our classrooms more authentic?
http://colearning.wikispaces.com/LearningIsChange
Learning 2.0 A Colorado Conversation February 23, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Conference Sessions.add a comment
I’m attending the Learning 2.0 A Colorado Conversation today, and will be posting periodically. It is good to see so many familiar faces, and also to see so many unfamiliar faces. I’m hopeful this will be a day that challenges me to gain a better understanding of how technology and learning fit together. The conference has a virtual component if you want to come along.
http://colearning.wikispaces.com/
Phun February 23, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Opinion, Tools.add a comment
Okay, this rarely happens any more, but I just experienced one of those moments when my jaw dropped and I said to myself “this changes everything” but after watching the video embedded below, that’s exactly what happened. I found Phun reading a Clarence Fisher post on Remote Access. Please read his post as well as watch the video. What is Phun? While it might not be obvious to many, what was obvious to me is that Phun is the simplest programming environment I’ve ever seen. I’ve always believed that computers at their best become a way to change education when students control what the computer does. This is one reason blogging is important, because it puts the students in control. Phun does that for programming. It makes it simple for students to create simulations and alter a virtual environment of their own design. Phun is absolutely Phabulous!
http://remoteaccess.typepad.com/remote_access/2008/02/phun.html
The Internet Is My Hard Drive February 20, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Articles/Videos, Opinion.add a comment
Bruce Schneier has posted an interesting commentary on Wired that essentially says the Internet is becoming more and more our hard drive. As that happens, we are subject to intermittent drive failures and some of our ‘data’ is lost. This can happen when a site is hacked and there is no backup, or when a service goes off-line like my Blackberry did last week.
I guess it is inevitable that the more stuff I keep on the Internet, or on any technology, the more susceptible it is to getting lost. Still, it isn’t like I go around and record every conversation I have for future playback, or commit every thought to paper ‘just in case’ I might need to remember what I was thinking. As I get older, and am more likely to forget something, I don’t see rediscovering already discovered ground as such a big deal. I’m getting more comfortable with it in fact.
I would have to say that the risk of losing something is more than balanced out by the benefits I gain by keeping something on the Internet in the first place. I get access to it from anywhere I can access the Internet. I can connect my ideas to the ideas of others and extend those ideas in new ways. Others can connect to my ideas and do the same. I also benefit from the process of writing itself.
So I guess I’m good with the idea that ‘my stuff’ on the Internet isn’t permanent, that it is still subject to the randomness of life. Even if I woke up tomorrow and all of my web pages and blogs and wikis were gone, it was all worth it. And just in case, I’m going to see if I can find a way to back up my blog before I go to bed tonight!
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/commentary/securitymatters/2008/02/securitymatters_0221
Unplanned Obsolescence February 20, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in 21st-Century, Opinion.add a comment
I ran across an interesting post on Infomancy today about obsolete skills. When I was a student, I was pretty good at threading film reels. I could also change the typeball on an IBM Selectric typewriter. I’m sure there are many other good examples of skills I picked up that are now obsolete. I’ve been able to move on and continue to collect skills that will probably become obsolete as well. For example, I can set a temporary greeting on my voice-mail when I won’t be at my desk for an extended period of time. Good to know for now, but for how long?
So I’m left wondering what skills we are passing along that are doomed for obsolescence, and what are we doing to encourage the skills that will allow our children to move on and continue to learn new skills as they become necessary. Below is a link to the list of obsolete skills, just in case you were wondering if any of your own skills are as obsolete as my own. I’m also sure that there are lists of skill we do need, but how long until those lists become obsolete?
http://obsoleteskills.com/Skills/Skills
RSS assignment February 19, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Conference Sessions.add a comment
I recently revamped much of the online class that I teach for Lesley University. The class is comprised of 6 two-week modules. Each module has two parts, usually one longer assignment, and the other a collection of shorter assignments. In reorganizing the assignments, I placed two previously separated assignments together. In one assignment, the class finds blogs to keep track of and review in an effort to better understand what blogs are and how they work. In the other assignment, the class sets up an RSS feed and adds a number of feeds. They report back on the experience, and which feeds they selected.
Okay, in hindsight, this may be obvious, but shouldn’t these be the same assignment? At one time it seemed to make sense to provide multiple activities, but now that the two assignments are together in one place, it sure feels like it might have been more successful if they were combined into just a single assignment.
With so much that could be included in the class, it is sometimes difficult to know what to keep. There are additional assignments for setting up a their own blogs, and visiting each others blogs to leave comments, but I’m interested to know how others ‘teach’ blogs and RSS. If you have any successful strategies, or definite pitfalls to avoid, please leave me a comment on them.
Podcast Summit Live! February 19, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Conference Sessions, Tools.2 comments
But the Teacher is making great use of CoveritLive to provide a live feed from a podcasting summit. I’m happy to see this both because it shows a good use of the tool, and also because I wasn’t able to attend the summit. Thanks Bud!
http://budtheteacher.typepad.com/bud_the_teacher/2008/02/live-blogging-c.html
Edubloggers Directory February 19, 2008
Posted by Matthew Woolums in Edubloggers.add a comment
By way of Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk Blog, I’m adding information to the Associations page of this blog to include the International Edubloggers Directory.
