Moving forward from where we are

There has been lots of discussion this week about what we'd like to do if we could access some of these tools in our schools. David Warlick in a post on his 2 Cents Worth Blog called It Was Good Enough for Me poses a series of questions to consider and actions to take, focusing on what we want children to learn and the relevant and compelling learning experiences we want to create for them not the technology for technology's sake. What do you want our dream classroom to look like and why?

Networked Learning Manifesto

John Pederson, Educational Technology Liaison for WiscNet presented his ideas on how our learners and learning are changing, focusing on the idea that networks enable new learning, new conversations, and new relationships. His Networked Learning Manifesto offers ideas on why it is important for schools to facilitate communication among learners. Many of the web 2.0 tools we'll look at in this class can facilitate this conversation. The readings listed at the bottom of the page provide others who are discussing these ideas.

Curricular Uses of Web 2.0 Tools

Here's an example of something that came across a blog I read regularly. You can download Terry Freedman's The Amazing Web 2.0 Projects Book for free. As you think about the technologies we discuss each week, this can provide some good examples of how they are currently being used by real teachers.

URL: http://www.terry-freedman.org.uk/cgi-script/csIndex/csIndex.cgi?command=vf&id=82&f=QW1hemluZyBXZWIgMiBQcm9qZWN0cy5wZGY=

Does technology challenge what it means to be educated and how we educate our youth?

There has been discussion about how web 2.0 tools can support education as well as how our students' changing relationship with technology impact how they learn best. Check out Crossroads in Education: Issues for Web 2.0, Social Software, and Digital Tools by Patricia Deubel (2008) for a discussion about how creativity and collaboration, personalization, and collective knowledge building will impact what we do in schools.

http://thejournal.com/articles/2008/04/16/crossroads-in-education-issues-for-web-20-social-software-and-digital-tools.aspx

Tips for Teachers

101 Tips, Tools, and Resources for Teaching Students about Social Media is really for teachers who need to learn about it themselves. While it is geared to higher education, there are useful resources in Internet safety and managing one's online presence along with links on blogging and using Twitter.

A post on Will Richardson's blog referenced this article:

English Social Studies General Current Practice Seminal Articles Calendar

Volume 1, Issue 1 ISSN 1528-5804 Print Version Commentaries Submit A Commentary Carroll, T. G. (2000). If we didn't have the schools we have today, would we create the schools we have today? Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education [Online serial], 1 (1). Available: http://www.citejournal.org/vol1/iss1/currentissues/general/article1.htm

The article, written in 2000, promotes the idea of schools becoming networked learning communities where both teachers and students are active learners. It notes:
"Each member has a role as a community learning resource.

• If you are an experienced learner in the community—practiced at solving problems—you have a role to play helping others to learn. You may bring past knowledge and experience, and you will learn more as you help them learn.

• If you are a young person or a novice at learning in a particular field, you still have a role to play as you construct your own knowledge and understanding, and through that process contribute new insights, experiences, and creations that enhance the learning of others in the community."

In a Web 2.0 environment where collaboration, participation and creativity are possible and students and teachers can all participate, these roles could be supported in Carroll's "learning communities" (not communities of learners of learners where individuals are engaged in his own learning. Hopefully in this class we can move away from the transmission model of teaching to a more two-way learning mode where we learn from each other.

It's an article well worth reading and thinking about where you see education and schools moving and how we can get to the point where we focus on learning.