Here and there….with this and that.

The wiki….what a fantastic idea.  It makes me feel terribly obsolete to know that I have been so antiquated with all of my email exchanges with committees and such.  Just keeping track of what is or is not said is enough to convert me into wiki use for all that planning and collaboration.

As for the classroom…I am still pondering the uses for my students.  I actually went through every wiki that was on the Thing 8 list and was surprised at how different all of them are…in organization, content, scope…you name it.  I really like the Thousands Project wiki and thought it a great way to get students interested in thinking and sharing with one another.  I also thought the Kubler Reading wiki a great way to get students to pick out ideas from their reading and open up all kinds of potential dialogue on so many different topics.  I was particularly interested in this type of wiki as an assessment tool.  Vicki Davis has such a comprehensive wiki that I was in awe just sleuthing the thing.  It has provided me with goals…and makes me truly wonder how long it will take to set up something like it.  I am also curious as to how long it will take my students to pick up on this idea (probably not long at all) and adopt a habit of sharing their thoughts and knowledge on topics being discussed in and out of the classroom.  In any case…I can’t wait to find the different ways to use this with my classes.  I think the instant feedback and collaboration are unbelievably powerful tools that students need to know how to use in this techno-savvy world.

Talk about a mountain of reading that is delivered to me…the joys of subscribing to RSS and such.  So far, I am learning to do a lot of skimming and still find myself struggling to get back and read the blogs and articles that I found interesting enough to “star” the first go around.  All of this is very addictive and I find myself reading this stuff at around 3 am thinking that I will only be there for about twenty minutes or so…until I realize that a couple of hours have gone by.  It’s just amazing.  Granted, I am learning a lot, but can’t say that my favorite sites are always educational.  The thing that thrills me the most is that it all comes to me…how easy is that?

That said, here are a few of my favorites so far:

Dictionary.com has a word of the day…I have become a religious reader and love to quiz students.

http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/

Techlearning blog…I always find a use for the things they suggest….google earth being the latest.

http://www.techlearning.com/blog/

And for total mind fun…puzzles (below is just one example)

http://www.flashpuzzlezone.com/jigsaw/animals/cats/cat2/

I have been reading all kinds of blogs and hope that I am not the only one out there that feels nothing short of overwhelmed with all the information that is floating around out there.  On any given day, I often feel that I am robbed of the time that I would enjoy reading for pleasure…a book that is not specifically devoted to science, education, and the etceteras associated with a classroom.  Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy that kind of reading too, but a good mystery novel or poetry sounds pretty fantastic too.  Now, let us add to the fun by finding all kinds of blog entries, news events, and all those other tidbits of information that are posted everywhere.  I could spend hours reading and often do..at about 2 or 3 am.

In some of my sleuthing, I found a blog…”Three Cheers for Failure”  (http://www.techlearning.com/blog/2008/09/three_cheers_for_failure.php)  that I found really interesting.  It’s the idea that learning can happen through failure and that we, as educators, should not be apprehensive to evaluate and help students through the learning process when their efforts yield less than perfect results.  As a science teacher, where learning is often done through failure, I have had the continual problem of encouraging students to try no matter what…and to understand that they are responsible for their own work.  Instead, they are often full of excuses on their performance (or lack thereof)  and unwilling to even try if they are not assured of absolute success and perfection.  Added to this is the sense that all students should be high achieving in all that they do, which is just not the case.  Sometimes, academic performance is just not where it should be and the student needs to know that they can and should do what it takes to show improvement.  I especially like the author’s final comment….”Honesty really is the best policy.”

When I watched the videos associated with this activity, I was left in awe.  I feel so far behind and wonder how I can ever begin to play the game of catch up.  I was most impressed with Shift Happens…. especially the statement “We are currently preparing students for jobs and technologies that don’t yet exist…in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.”  That is an unbelievably powerful concept to me.  If this is the case, why are we so stuck in a traditional model of education?  Is it because that is what we know and the incorporation of new practices is too difficult?  Is it because we haven’t yet found a tool to measure or evaluate this type of learning?  This idea goes back to my curiosity of what our end product of education should be for these students.  How can we determine what tools or thought processes to teach if we are not sure what will best serve them in the future?

Students today are definitely more technologically savvy.  Added to this is a sort of “no fear” attitude when it comes to trying something new.  The only drawback that I am often finding with my current classes is that students are spending more time finding the different ways to play with lessons rather than really learning the material of the lesson.  Virtual dissections are a perfect example.  The students definitely enjoy the lab and have no problems working through the required steps, but I often see a real disconnect with what they are seeing/doing and their ability to discuss/analyze their activities.  I have no doubt that our students can use so many technological items, but I do wonder if it is appropriately enhancing the learning process or providing a sort of distraction.

After watching the video on the 7 1/2 Habits, I had a bunch of questions…mostly of myself and just what meaningful learning entails and looks like.  Over the years, I have been an avid student of all kinds of things.  I have always said that, given enough time and money, I would be a perpetual student.  This is a far cry from my attitude of oh-so-many years ago.  My biggest challenge was the constant need to seek perfection in all my work and this in no way related to my interest in the work.  I just hated failure.  This concept offers a great connection to the habit that intrigues me the most, but provides the most challenging….Habit 1…or “Begin with the end in mind.”  I am a firm believer in the process of scaffolding or building learning into several steps that culminate into a final product or end result in learning.  It is providing and teaching students the steps that are necessary to achieving understanding of whatever is being taught.  On the flip side, who decides what the end result of learning should look like?  Is this a truly meaningful process to the student?  I feel like I could go on with this idea forever, but let’s move on anyway.

Of the habits discussed in the film, I am very focused on the use of technology in education and, in this class, hope to manipulate whatever free time I can find to really play with its use and application to the classroom.  Quite honestly, just the idea of blogging is a bit overwhelming.  I enjoy writing, but not usually to an audience that I may or may not know.  Somehow, my concept of meaningful conversation does not seem to connect to the cyberspace world that my students, friends, and family have ascribed to for quite some time.  I still love actual pen and paper correspondance and have been reminded that such preoccupation is nothing short of archaic.  This course is my way of the polite nudge of self to get it together and take a serious look at what this is all about.

I guess this means I have officially started the fun and games!