LightintheWoods

I am so new it is hard to totally visualize my future classes. There is a game of foosball jostling within my cranium. Weighing pro’s and con’s of different approaches and ideas and tools.

Going into my internship (Aug-Dec) I have been thinking about how to start. How am I going to infuse web 2.0 tools and technology into my students learning? Throughout this course we have been shown a lot and introduced to wide array of individuals. I’ve built a network of like minded individuals, classmates, new acquaintances and mostly folks I have never met. My interaction within my network of educators will continue to introduce new ideas, philosophies and guide my thinking. This network has became my base, it stabilizes me and focuses my ramblings. It will continue to guide continued learning and development. My participation is the greatest professional development course I have ever taken.

I am now conscious of my own digital citizenship. By developing my students awareness of their own digital citizenship, their real citizenship will be positively influenced. Our world is revolving around technology with little chance of slowing, our students need to be exposed to it. It is important that students understand that their online self is a direct reflection of them self and they have to be responsible for their own web use and safety. With digital citizeship an underlying theme of everything we do online, students will learn to identify and compare poor examples.

I intend to reach curricular goals, objectives and outcomes through the inclusion of technology. Technology use will just be part of my teaching, not just some special 40 minutes where we play games. I will be able to open the window to the world for my students. I will show them different places, how to analyze the world at a higher level, we will write for audiences that reach far and wide. I want to ensure that learning is meaningful, relevant and happens throughout students lives, not just in the classroom. Technology will aid my ability to do this.

I look forward to working through the future challenges of the ‘digital divide’, policy making, digital citizenship and whatever else is slung our way. I am going to commit myself to my students and their learning. I will learn when to guide and when to step back to let their brains pump. There will be stumbling blocks and I will get lots wrong, but I will reflect and strive for improvement. Technology will be part of my personal teaching arsenal of strengths, along with my appreciation of the natural world, my enthusiasm for learning.

I will be a facilitator, a soundboard, a mediator , a mentor, an editor, a leader, a planner, molder, a guide, a learner. I will provide my students with opportunities to think, to reason, to explore, to learn.

Interning will give me an opportunity to focus on the inclusion of technology within learning experiences. I am lucky to be starting my career with these and new tools, rather then trying to make the transition down the road. Not exactly sure what is going to happen in a year when I get my own class but I will be ready to dirty. I feel like I will be able to make the learning real. My students will be connected and exposed to high levels of thought and expertise, more than I could ever offer them alone. When I look in the crystal ball, I see myself with a little more experience and know how, maybe with some battle wounds but definitely with a smile on my face.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/16152133@N00/455286001 - This fellow has some amazing photo’s

As a requirement of the class that I am taking from Dean, my thoughts this past two weeks have been on collaboration. This is a reflection on my collaboration as it happened through this time frame.

Right off the bat Erin Dawson and I were sharing like minded direction during our elluminate session. We both wanted to create a wiki project on inclusion of technology in K-8 Science. Seemed like a great idea, but then it snowballed and evolved into elementarytech. This wiki demonstrates a broad spectrum of projects that infuse technology. We used mindmeister to brainstorm ideas and communicated mostly through email. I have heard the the quote from Alec Couros, “10 miles wide, 2 inches deep” and definitely applies to this wiki, we lacked direction. But I am still attached to it, I feel it has good potential and I intend to collect future lessons, links, units in this space. If anyone is interested, please come share with us. This is space that is ever growing.
Nicole Hofer created the Digital Citizen Ning group, I was familiar with Ning from my involvement with the digitalintern group and find it to be a neat platform to share and build community. I contributed a couple videos, but have intent to blog and develop this further. At the very least it is a good example of networking. I may use Ning to connect my students during this internship.

The neat part about the project with Dean was the opportunity to correspond with Jeff Utecht’s Class. Micheal, David and Matt created a great wetpaint wiki Web 2.0 for Newbies. I hopped on and began a Twitter in the Classroom page.

With application to the classroom floating in my mind I was lucky Damien Bariexca linked me to his class wiki. His reflection of his wiki experience is just what is needed for new teachers, like me.

But that is just a taste of the collaboration, it is happening instantaneously. Through everything, twitter and del.icio.us come to mind, but also through comments, reflections and discussion. The network is a grand thing.

Yesterday was a good day, I am no longer writing for my personal audience but for stranger’s and new friends. Recognition happened twice yesterday.

First, it was awesome to be introduced on the stuff nobody told us (a project by Christian Long and Damien Bariexca) blog yesterday. Though stuff nobody told us is still in it’s infancy, it has very relevant posts for new teachers or those that need a refresher. Their blog is looking for new teachers in their first 1-3 years to comment and encourage further development and dialog. So check it out.

Then later in the day, Clarence Fisher, an established blogger and all star teacher whom I have been following and idolizing, referenced me in his post on twitter in the classroom. That floored me,I was grinning ear to ear all night.

This feels like a huge accomplishment. All of a sudden, my writing and thoughts are being appreciated by many. My network is growing. I feel the sense of pride and ownership that my students will feel when their work is published and recognized.

Thanks everyone, I know this will happen more in the future and I won’t write about each instance, but right now I am just an amateur in a big world and this was extremely meaningful to me.

I twit. Just started, it was fine at first. Just me, by myself, just twittering away, no followers or leaders. I posted it on my blog as a cool tool and thought ‘groovy, another line of communication.’ There I was floating in the 140 characters. Why did I start? Don’t know, just heard about it, thought it would be neat to try. Now it is one of my most useful resources, it connects me to a network of individuals who lead and guide me (sometimes with 5 or 6 posts a day) through the web. To those 18 I follow, thank you. It is one of my most valuable tools, along with RSS and Del.icio.us and it is all because of the network. It takes a lot less time than reading or writing full out blog post and it challenges the writer’s ability to be concise as well as write for a more specific audience of followers.

As I was going through my reader, I found a post by Alja Sulčič that inspired my reflections. Alja wrote these true words,

“Many are wondering at what makes people Tweet, but as with most Web 2.0 phenomena you can’t really know/understand what it is all about until you give it a try (and I mean really give it a try by actively participating!).”There are so many tools in the web 2 world that it is easy to be intimidated by them. I like exploring, always have, and now exploring is a skill that is becoming a valuable tool. Through my leaders tweets, my access to tools, resources, and neat idea’s has exploded. So I urge you, try this one out. But use caution it too has addictive properties.

add me and let us learn together.

I see lots of classroom possibilities for communication on collaborative projects. Perhaps, a series of project updates for the class to keep everyone on the same page and connected. or comparing weather with a group of grade two classrooms around the world. I am definitely going try this out at some capacity. Does anybody know of any classroom stories of it’s use?

photo credit: http://flickr.com/photos/victorrocha/1004588330/

Three weeks left then internship, grade 5/6. I am pumped. But also a tad nervous… So many questions. I am starting out with Phys ed and hopefully by the end of the first week I will be using lab times to get started on student blogging and introducing various tools. But I don’t really know how I am going to begin and I am looking for advice. I know that my implementation of technology will snowball and develop over time but I want to be prepared so I can guide successful usage.

This idea came to me from David Jakes via twitter, he asked the question of which video to show on the first days of school - the answers came in as Did you know? Pay Attention and Sir Ken Robinson. or maybe The machine is us/ing us But what else do we need to do to start.

I believe I need to begin with a strong focus on digital citizenship. So I will probably also show Think BeforeYou Post and introduce why how real life and digital life is one in the same.

But how else can we prepare our students over the first couple weeks. What are the best choices for setting up student blogs? Do I get them google accounts right off the bat? That way we can use google docs, blogger, reader. How about use RSS? What particular routines or rules will be useful for class management?

I am looking for answers from all you teachers out there. Please help.

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Where do pineapples come from? 10 points for the first right answer.

Copyright law seems incredibly outdated. These days you can get movies, songs, books; pretty much any creative material for free via the web. Friends of mine download via BitTorrent, some choose to pay for songs through iTunes. Even the latest Harry Potter book was available on Scribd days after it’s release (Thanks to Will Richardson for pointing this out on his blog) I have never really been into downloading these type of media, it just seemed to complex and a little bit wrong. But it is getting increasingly easier and more frequent and my personal opinions are changing. Recently, I discovered online TV, it streams the TV shows I am interested in directly onto my computer. The quality is not the greatest, but it beats paying $70 for the latest season on Lost or Heroes, plus no commercials. As great as this is, I still have anixeity about it, am I stealing? Will these great shows stop being made if we all stop paying?

I justify it by paying my SaskTel Max service charges which entitle me to these shows for regular scheduled programming, but most often I can not be available for the regular scheduled programming. However, I do not subscribe to HBO, and they have the best shows and I admittedly have checked them out for free via the web. Should I go to jail? Who thinks this is stealing?

A friend of mine passed on this reasoning that he had heard from his priest. The priest, an avid downloader, said “If your neighbor was continually throwing whole, unwrapped chocolate bars over your fence would it be wrong to eat them? No. So why would it be wrong to take advantage of products sent to us through satellites and phone cords?” What a justification eh, and from a priest no less! If only it was that simple, the owners of this creative material are not simply throwing it over the fence, but others are grabbing it from them, like candy from a baby, and throwing it to us. It can be argued that creators of this material need to improve their avenues and methods or delivery to the public, but we, the public also need to demonstrate online morale by not taking advantage of these tools.

So the questions I leave you with are these. How do we develop this morale with our students when they see their friends and family downloading thousands of songs or the latest movie? How do we demonstrate proper use of technology without infringing on the ownership and hardwork of others?

All of this is making me feel a little…

I have been out of touch for about 9 or 10 days, no internet, no computer. Just relaxing and reflecting in a quiet campground called Englishmans Creek on Lake Koocanusa south of Fernie. It was good to get away, I always enjoy my time away from my regular paced lifestyle but this time I found myself wanting to get back. I couldn’t put my finger on it until a couple days ago, but while camping my mind kept wandering back to all of this web 2.0 mumbo jumbo that my brain has focused on for the past couple months. I have a lot of questions about the how’s and whys that are involved with the implementation of the tools I am learning about. I find that the more I contemplate these questions, the more technology’s place in my teaching philosophy is cemented. With time and experience I will flesh this philosophy and the answers to these questions out further.

As I get back to my online life I am finding a full aggregrator, a couple podcasts and a handful of interesting collaborative wiki’s I will be trying to contribute to over the coming week. My interest in this is the answer to my hunger to return.