Making moving easy…
Every night this week and last I have been packing. I have been
packing up my family to move us to someplace better, with more room
and more possibilities (and more than one bathroom). This move has
gotten me thinking a lot about what to keep and what to let go of.
Without extending a metaphor too far out, it has also gotten me
thinking about how to move an entire school or even a district from
digital learning systems that they currently use, to ones that have
more possibility and room to grow.
And, what can we leave behind in this move. When you move from an
email based system of communication to a feed and “friend” based
system of communication (twitter, facebook, or even project wikis),
what is no longer neccessary?
When you move from a server based architecture for storing learning
objects to a cloud based repository, what is gained and what is lost?
The specifics are becoming more and more clear to me as I pack things
up. As I pack up our assessments for the online school, getting them
ready to move again, we can leave behind proprietary formats. We need
to be able to plug them in anywhere and reuse them for many purposes.
As I pack up all of our content, I realize that we can leave all html
pages without an edit button on them.
And, as I try to put all of our tools and resources for collaborative
and connected learningn into their box to be ported over to a new LMS
or to new PD spaces, I am realizing that there is no box big enough to
hold all of them.
Every tool must be allowed to connect to others, just like every
person must be able to connect. If there are tools that do not
connect, they will be packed away permanantly and placed under the
stairs.
Well, I am off to pack some more, but I will continue to think about
what can and can’t be thrown out when we make big shifts in education.
I hope to return to this theme soon when I figure more out.
Posted via email from olco5′s posterous
Waiting on something big.
I have to say that as I am preparing to write and create my presentation for Educon 2.1 (http://educon21.wikispaces.com), I am struck by the need to do something very big. I really would like to have all of my efforts to instill an attitude of change in those around me come to a significant point. I would like to have a moment to sit back and reflect, which is what this blog is supposed to be all about. In fact,I have been doing far too little of that recently. Perhaps the doing is getting in the way of the thinking.
I had a meeting earlier with the head of the Digital Educator program in our district, and we spent probably about 2 hours meandering through tools and never pinning down what is truly important to pursue with teachers. Is it really important that teachers be able to know how feeds work? Is it really valuable to create a social network for this particular project? Or, is it vitally important that we help everyone create their own networks? Why is it so hard for me to solidify my ideas of what is truly mastering the art of conecting and collaborating with others?
So, as I go forward with this presentation, I will be pursuing the big reflection, but not at the expense of the small reflection. I would say watch this space, but until I say something of value, odds are that it is pointless to say something like that. We are only as valuable as our most recent idea, right?
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
Posted by email from olco5′s posterous
Online Learning and Web 2.0: OL Teach 2008 (Secondary)
The Presentation:
The Collaborative Podcast:
The OL Teach Text Messages:
The Backchannel and Moderated Discussion:
The Voicethread for Sharing Ideas:
The Links for further learning:
Preserve the learning links:
Creation as norm links:
Authenticity as expectation links:
Online Learning and Web 2.0: OL Teach 2008 (Elementary)
The Presentation:
The Collaborative Podcast:
The OL Teach Text Messages:
The Backchannel and Moderated Discussion:
The Voicethread for Sharing Ideas:
The Links for further learning:
Preserve the learning links:
Creation as norm links:
Authenticity as expectation links:
The Ripe Environment for Authentic Learning: TIE 2008
The process of creating a Ripe Environment for Authentic Learning is one that must be experienced rather than explained, so it is my most sincere hope that you experience The Ripe Environment today and that you take ownership enough of it to take it with you when you leave today.
Let’s start with the basics, though: defining our terms.
- 1:1 – ben@learningischange.com
- 1:Many – The Edublog Awards
- Many:Many – The Classroom 2.0 Social Network or Curriki
3. Connecting more than two dots:
- Hyperlink until it hurts
- Capture the learning for later (skitch and Jing and great for this)
- That is why we use blogs to communicate, not because they are easy, not
because they are more collaborative, it is simply because they let the
content speak for itself. Without content you are nothing. Without
great ideas there is no hope for the future. It is the content that
matters, not the format. That is why we do blogs, to pull content up
through the rss straw, roll it around in our mouth-like readers,
tasting each smooth milkshake post and swallow it down, totally
satisfying our desire to fill our bellies with content.
- The Digital Literacy Toolbox (521 revisions at last count)
8. Independent and Interdependent Questioners
- Ask a question here.
- Create something new here:
9. Change Cannot be Institutionalized
10. The Most Powerful Learning
- The typewriter vs. the fully connected blog post.
Digital Sticky Notes
Feedback continues to be something that requires a lot of thought to do right. I want to provide my students with as much timely feedback as possible, but I don’t want to have to resort to the methods of printing out blog posts and putting paper sticky notes on them. In this podcast I explore the possibility of giving student feedback using web annotation tools. If anyone has any good ideas for tools like this (other than diigo) please e-mail them to benjamin.wilkoff@dcsdk12.org
- 00:00:00: Intro to Feedback
The Podcast Blog - 00:01:33: Feedback Methods
- 00:02:56: Revision-based Writing
- 00:06:03: Collaborative Tools for the Individual
- 00:07:21: Virtual Stick Notes
- 00:08:55: The Outsourcing of Grading
Steve Hargadon’s Blog - 00:11:51: Looking for the Tool and Conclusion
My Blog
Digital Ex-Patriots and The Formula for Transparency
Well, I may be going out on a limb with this one, but I have described in the podcast a level of discomfort with technology that goes beyond the simple immigrant/native debate. The fear and panic that is associated with technology in the classroom comes from Digital Ex-Patriots. These people (parents, teachers, administrators, etc.) are so sure of their anti-technology stance that they are actively pursuing a life (of education) away from technology integration. These are the people that we must win over if we are going to continue our collaborative efforts and truly create change. Please let me know what you think about this concept in the comments or in an e-mail (benjamin.wilkoff@dcsdk12.org)
Show Notes:
- 00:00:00: Intro to Online and Offline Life
Internation Community of Minds - 00:03:17: Safety Vs. Panic
The Most Discussed Post I’ve Ever Written - 00:05:07: Creating Discussion
Bud Hunt’s Blog - 00:06:07: Twitter as Tool
- 00:07:28: Formula for Transparency
Discovery Online Code - 00:08:16: Twitter as Classroom Communication
Remote Access Twitter - 00:09:40: Digital Ex-Patriots
- 00:11:37: Google Paper: Good or Bad Idea?
- 00:13:14: Mass Phone Call Newsletter
Pheeder - 00:13:53: Paths to Transparency
- 00:18:03: The Role of Students in Classroom 2.0
- 00:19:20: Transparency as Conversation
- 00:21:35: Conclusion with Challenge
Podcast Blog
What Myspace can teach us about School 2.0
This podcast was brought about because of the classroom discussion that my eighth graders had about what a terrible affect Myspace can have on their lives. I wanted to start brainstorming a school-sponsored space that we could substitute for Myspace that would be an extension of the classroom. This space would have the ability to connect students over academic interests as well as personal interests. It would allow for photo sharing and digital storytelling within these photos. Primarily, however, this space would allow students to comment on everything. Each element of the space (a module) would have a feedback form, so students would get comments about their school notes, their podcasts, their blog posts, their beliefs, and their photos. I can’t think of anything that would engage students more than being able to get specific feedback on all of the important aspects of their lives, and to do it all in an environment that wouldn’t allow the inflammatory remarks that are a systematic part of Myspace. Let me know what you think of this idea and its feasibility at benjamin.wilkoff@dcsdk12.org or http://yongesonne.edublogs.org
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