Just found out that there is a Webkinz blog!! I was going through the comments I received for my last Blog (Net “Work” ing) and I had a Moderation Queue that I followed. The link led me to a Webkinz blog. You have to be kidding me!! I guess I shouldn’t be surprised! This is just confirmation about how ‘out of the loop’ I really am.
PS – I subscribed to the Webkinz blog . . . they are such cute little guys!
I just listened in on a great discussion led by George Siemens that made me really consider the whole issue of developing on-line networks in today’s society. He touched on two key points that emulate my life. The first point brought up revolved around the information explosion that we are experiencing on-line. George was right . . . there is a sense of fatigue when it comes to all the information out there that can be consumed. He also mentions that the field of technology is such a complex field to understand (to those unfamiliar with it) that a self proclaimed ‘rookie’ like myself does experience “Death by Jargon” and often during conversations with more experienced “techies”, my eyes do in fact glaze over and I have difficulty making any sense of this technology thing. It is a lot of “work” to get networked!!
Then the old “hey rookie, get with it” slap in the face occurred. My backhand came when a second point was brought up by a classmate (Connie). She asked George about the issue of young children . . . his thoughts on whether or not a child can be too young to be involved in on-line networking. He explained that networks are a form of learning and a type of learning, something that all children (regardless of age) can benefit from. He also mentioned something that I am very familiar with (while discussing this point) . . . Webkinz.
I am a father of two young daughters (7 and 5) who love Webkinz and continually ask mom and dad if they can go on Webkinz. As a parent (who is trying to be responsible . . . and get a minute of piece and quiet once and a while!) I wonder about the value of such websites, however, allow them to go visit their virtual pets in the virtual world. I am amazed at what technological skills they have picked up and the network they have formed through Webkinz. They have a network of friends, take their virtual pets over to their friends virtual pet’s house, and also send messages and gifts to their friends. They are more ‘networked’ than their old dad!! I thought networking was “work”? My kids are having fun!! I guess the ‘old man’ can learn a lot from his kids. Maybe they can show me how to use Twitter!!
I just listened to a presentation by Rick Schwier, who took the time to present information on the history of Educational Technology and how he believes, along with many others, that there needs to continue to be a shift in education from the traditional school model (teacher lecturing / instructing . . . students listening and ‘trying’ to learn) to reflect today’s technological society.
Rick mentioned that as technologies evolved, they were incorporated into schools and were viewed as ‘the saving grace’. Unfortunately, the technology did the exact same thing the teacher did . . . the information was just presented through a technological tool. Rick told a story of how his science classes (grade 5) were so boring because his instructor (who’s name I will keep anonymous!!) would stand at the front of the room and discuss (in his monotone voice) about the importance of the grasshopper. One day, his class had the privilege of experiencing video technology, which was extremely exciting!! Rick recalls that the video might as well have been his teacher’s brother presenting the same information . . . however it used a ‘neat / new’ technology!! The novelty of something new made it exciting. Guess what? The novelty wears off! A new technology will evolve . . . exciting for students . . . novelty wears off!! What a vicious circle! Unfortunately this can (and often is) the trend of technological use in schools today.
Rick stressed the importance of changing philosophies, not just technology. Schools and educators need to embrace technology and not fear it. Schools are the places where educators have the opportunity to teach students media awareness and link them with the educational world, not just the students in room 304 where their social studies class is. Today’s technologies afford everyone the opportunity to connect with the world . . . to link with others . . . to branch out and become part of the global learning community.
Please don’t get the impression that I am standing on a pedestal with all the answers and do not fall into the category of ‘traditional teacher’. I am not technologically savvy and do not know of many technological tools that exist that could benefit my teaching . . . which in turn would benefit student learning. I am most comfortable being the instructor . . . but is this the best educational approach to learning? I understand the time commitment necessary to ‘re-invent the wheel’ (so to speak) using technology. I guess the old saying, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ applies. I am an educator who is just beginning my journey to ‘change my ways’ of instruction within my class. Wish me luck.
Rick showed a portion of the video ‘One Laptop per Child‘. I encourage you to watch it to give you an idea of why I am starting my journey.
(I tried for 15 minutes to actually insert the video into this blog rather than providing the link . . . to make things more efficient!! Sorry. As you can see, my path will be a long one but I know it will be valuable)
Wow! I recently watched a presentation on sexual predators, and as an educator (and more importantly a parent) I was shocked! I guess I am a bit naive in thinking that what I saw was real. The presenter (who’s name escapes me at the moment) worked for the police as an undercover sexual predator. His job was to go into chat-rooms (acting as a young boy or girl) in an attempt to catch sexual predators. He demonstrated how easy it is for predators to get valuable information about those who use chat rooms.
He entered a chat room and within 10 minutes had an amazing amount of information on the individual he was chatting with! He met her as ‘preciousgirl44′ and started chatting with her, pretending he was a 14 year old boy. While he was chatting with her, he used another computer to do his ‘dirty work’. I can’t explain all the programs he was using (mostly because I was in complete amazement) but through all his typing and clicking, the end result was him looking at a picture (using Google Earth) of the young girls backyard in Saskatoon. Along the way he found out her name, age, hobbies, like and dislikes, clubs she was in, the school she attended, the grade she was in, knew what she looked like from her MySpace page, visited her on Facebook . . .bottom line, it was scary!
The reality for me is that we need to protect our youth from predators out there. It became very obvious to me that the technologies out there that children use today can be dangerous (if carelessly used). It made me realize we need to take every precaution necessary to educate ourselves, our students, and our children how to protect themselves . . . so that they do not become easy targets for internet predators.
I must admit, as a ‘rookie blogger’ I am continuing to find it hard to set aside regular times to keep up with my thoughts. Like most of you, I am also quite busy. Even when I say to myself ‘I am going to sit down and blog’, something comes up . . . coaching my daughters hockey game because the coach was sick, reffing a basketball game because the ref couldn’t make it, something always seems to come up, but I finally found some precious time and I am going to use it.
I decided to focus my most recent math unit (fractions . . . grade 6) using the Smartboard. I found many valuable lessons that I used (and tweeked) to assist my traditional methods of teaching in a unit that students traditionally find difficult. I just finished marking their exams and I was amazed with the scores . . . more success than my students have ever achieved. Although it was a lot of work, the time was rewarding and well worth the effort. There is something to be said with the use of technology and a more hands-on approach to learning.
At the beginning of the unit I asked my students how many of them like fractions, almost all of them said ‘no’!! I asked why, and they basically said ‘we don’t get it’! When I asked them the same question following their exam, they unanimously agreed that the Smartboard approach was enjoyable for them, but also brought some clarity to concepts that were distant to them in the past.
I will attempt to continue to use this technology . . . who can argue with success!
I have only one word to say . . . Thanks! I had the privilege of listening to a presentation from Darren Kuropatwa, who in my opinion, is an expert in the field of Educational Technology. . . this is very obvious!! He is someone that, in a perfect world, all educators would strive to be like. Darren (for those of you who don’t know) is a teacher who teaches a variety of grade 9-12 Mathematics classes integrating the use of technology to amplify student learning. In the eyes of a self-proclaimed ‘rookie blogger / techie’ , he is someone that I learned an awful lot from last night.
Darren took my EC&I 831 class through “A Day in the Life of a Teacher Teaching with Technology”. As a fellow educator (who also teaches mathematics), this presentation was inspirational and provided me the motivation to attempt to take the risks that are necessary to integrate technology into my math classes. Darren’s approach to teaching is one that I am a quite unfamiliar with, and also somewhat scared of . . . USING TECHNOLOGY!! For someone (like myself) who does not know many of the technologies out there (and what they are capable of doing), the integration of technology into the classroom setting is one that can be overwhelming. To, first of all, learn what technologies exist, how to use the technology, and then determine how to include it in your classes must be a time consuming one. But I realize it is just like teaching a class for the first time . . . it takes a lot of time to prepare for but it gets a little easier each time you teach it. I think with today’s student (and society for that matter) and the ever-evolving presence of technology in our day-to-day lives, this effort must be made. For what little amount I have used technology in my classes, I see the benefits students can gain from its use. Darren lives this scenario everyday and his students must benefit!! (Check out an example of a Course Blog Darren currently has for one of his classes and you will see what I am talking about!)
He has incorporated so many of the wonderful technological tools available in today’s world and integrated them into his course to maximize student learning and understanding. From course blogs, to lesson podcasts, he teaches the kind of course that I would like to have had the opportunity to take when I was in school. It is exciting, interactive, flexible, hands-on, and promotes student learning. I have only scratched the surface of what Darren does to enhance student learning through technology. I know many educators have a long way to go to develop classes that remotely resemble the learning environment that Darren has created for his students. But I encourage all of you to consider the possibilities technology can create for students . . . its ability to have a significant impact on student learning.
I think Darren said it best, there are two ways you can teach math . . . one where you tell students a formula, show them how to do the work, and this formula gets planted in their brain . . . for them to pull out the ‘recipe’ of how to do this problem or that question. They understand how to do the question (if they remember the ‘recipe’) but do they truly understand the math? Or the one where you allow them the opportunity to make their own connections and discover (through interaction, discussion, collaboration, . . .) the true meaning of mathematics. Which teacher are you?
I really enjoyed the discussion from my class tonight. It was very interesting, and more successful (I might add). Ironic that the topic was about all the tools available to us in the world of technology and the class switched from Adobe Connect (which had some difficulties last week) to Eluminate Live as its presentation platform. This platform was much more successful; unfortunately for me, I was just familiarizing myself with Adobe . . . and they switched on me!! I’ll figure it out . . . I hope! From a presentation point of view, Eluminate was significantly better. This is reflective of tonight’s theme . . . there are so many tools that can do many of the same things, you just need to find the one that best suits your needs. You might not find the right tool the first time . . . or second time . . . third time . . . fourth time . . . but somewhere out there, you will find it.
One pressing issue came to mind throughout the entire session, one that was not mentioned, but one that I find applicable to my situation. TIME!! In listening to the discussions and reading the on-going postings, I came to the forgone conclusion that I have been living in a technological bubble!! 99% of the tools presented to us were ones I have never heard of . . . the ones I have heard of were the ones I discovered last week (because I was told about them!!). Everyone seemed to have some experience with these tools, knew the links, have incorporated them into the classes they teach, or use them in their everyday lives! I found myself wondering where they found the time.
I know that time is a pressing issue in everyone’s life and I am not asking anyone to play a violin for me, or offer me ’some cheese with my wine’ (I hope I don’t sound like I am whining, I am just a bit overwhelmed!) . I know that my classmates have jobs, families, and extra-curricular responsibilities, yet they are much more in the ‘technological loop’ than I am! If I am not teaching, marking assignments, planning for classes, coaching school sports, attending School Community Counsel meetings, staff meetings, administration meetings . . . running my kids to and from the rink, planning hockey practices, traveling to minor hockey games or tournaments, watching gymnastics classes . . . or even sitting down to spend 10 minutes talking with my wife about our day (and I haven’t even mentioned sitting down to eat . . .or going to bed at a decent hour to catch a few hours sleep each night), where do they (or did they) find the time to learn about these technologies and how they work…to take the necessary time to incorporate them into their everyday teachings and personal lives? I am excited about the possibilities of the technological tools discussed, but I feel at a bit of a loss. A loss in the fact that I am not sure of what all the technologies can do for me (and my classes), and much like the ‘Adobe / Eluminate’ scenario with this class, which one(s) are best suited for my classes!! And if I found the ‘perfect’ technology and was confident enough in my abilities to use it in a classroom setting, would I have access to the technologies my students need? Our computer lab is very rarely not in use. Finding a spare computer (at any given moment) at our school is like finding a needle in a hay-stack!! And if I was lucky enough to have access to the computers needed, would I be able to dip and dive through all the Divisional ‘Red-Tape’ of Firewalls, Pop-up blockers, and permission slips. How many parents are going to worry that their child is potentially being exposed to the ‘Big Bad Internet World’ and all its predators?!
I agree that technology is the wave of the future . . . no, it is the present. I might be naive or even somewhat pessimistic, but from a public school perspective, I think there is a long way to go.
Check out Darren’s Blog at:
http://adifference.blogspot.com/
Well, I officially became a ‘blogger’ last night . . . I successfully created my blog and not a whole lot more . . . a necessity for the Masters class I am taking. A class, I might mention, that seems very interesting, exciting, but (at this point in time) overwhelming!
I have never spent so much time in front of a computer screen trying to get to a point where I feel like my feet are on the ground. As I sit here typing, I have 4 sticky notes with user-names and passwords for a bunch of new accounts I created, that quite frankly, I am not sure how to successfully use!! You-Tube, Wiki, Blog, Google Reader . . . quite overwhelming for a guy who does not know a whole bunch about technology.
The nice thing about this whole situation is that I do not feel alone. Although I take this class through a computer screen with people hundreds of kilometres away in different locations, I feel like I am supported. I really appreciate that. I feel like many of my grade 6 students feel (at least I hope) that no matter the time or place, if they need anything to be successful in my class, I am there for them. For extra help, someone to talk to, some guidance through the last couple of math questions or the science lab, if they come knocking, I come calling. Although I feel overwhelmed, I know help is only a . . . e-mail . . . blog . . . phone call . . . skype (did I spell it right?) session away. Although I am sure that I will feel a little (or a lot) of apprehension and uncertainty for a while, but I know I will get through it. Thanks to everyone for being so helpful and supportive. Don’t be surprised if you hear from me!!
I am really looking forward to continuing to familiarize myself with these new technologies (hopefully I don’t lose my sticky notes or I am in big trouble) and network with my classmates. As I sign off for now, I am excited about hitting the ‘Save’ and ‘Publish’ button to officially begin my Blog. In just a few seconds, I will truly be a ‘blogger’!
