Technology Breeds Global Awareness?

Ordinarily I would not enter a blog posting not even one day after the previous one, but this one seems to be justified.
After I told my class what their new blog assignment was, one of them asked to see how our cluster map was doing. They were impressed at the visitors from around the globe, but they pointed out (as they have before) that the only continent without visitors (besides Antarctica) is Africa.
Shortly thereafter, one of my students walked up to me and said that he had an idea on how to get our blog read by people in Africa. I told him to write his idea down on paper, and I would look at it before lunch.
To my surprise, the paper said that our class should blog about what is happening to children in Darfur. He explained that this would get people from Africa to read out blog.
Picture me standing there speechless. Part of me was impressed that this student knew about the situation there. Part of me wondered how he knew; whether it was from his own research, dialogue within the family or if he saw it on the news (either by himself or with his family). Regardless of how he came to be aware of Darfur, he used technology as a device to connect the class to a real world issue. I asked him if perhaps he would like to do the blog article as a special project just for him (as I am not sure if all of my students would be able to understand what is happening there) and he replied that he would rather the entire class do it.
Here I sit still in awe of this. I wish I could take credit for him thinking this way, but I really can't. Sure, I like to think that I offer a learning setting that students are free to express their ideas and sure, the blog is a way to express those ideas in a fun and exciting setting, but this.... this is way beyond me. I like to think that I facilitated it (there is something that you hear from educational theorists, that teachers should play the facilitator role more than the depositor of information), and encourgaged him to bring this idea to light.
If a 9 year-old can do this, imagine what a 12 year-old or even a high school senior could come up with if given the empowerment, time and creative outlet? It truly is a wonderful time to be an educator. The world of tomorrow won't simply say that technology is a great way to accomplish these goals... it will demand it.

Another week, another challenge...

My students are very much excited to be blogging, and they even look forward to each new blog assignment. I have been assigning them weekly, and the response has been pretty positive. Imagine... students looking forward to homework. My biggest challenge continues to be making them relevant to both my students and to my curriculum.

Now that my students have completed their research for the vodcast project, it is time to move to the next step. I have taken pictures of them investigating and observing their crayfish. I also want to give them the opportunity to find images that they might want to use for the characterist attribute that they are responsible for. With those tools, they are going to use Microsoft PhotoStory to put together their mini movies. These mini movies (chapters) will be joined together for one presentation. To accomplish this, they must understand how to use the tools. I will be working with our library media specialist and technology integration facilitator to help teach my kids how to do this. In the real work, the most difficult thing is scheduling.

Once we conquer this monumental task, we can move onto the next one...

My thought for the day as I sit here on a Sunday watching football... is this working? They are excited about using this technology, but is it serving their needs? I will surely have to use PhotoStory again to reinforce what they have learned, and also if they are competent and confident with it, why not take advantage of that 'prior knowledge'? Is this scaffolding at the technology level? I guess so, but then again isn't technology an area that is truly scaffolded? Isn't each skill learned truly reinforced in some way whether it is how to use a word processing program, learning to type, moving the mouse or even touching a SMARTboard?

My First Attempt at a Vodcast...

Okay.. so it's nothing spectacular.. but I just finished it. I used Switch, Audacity, Sound Recorder and PhotoStory. Imagine how much work the real deal will be! The purpose of this video is to present an introduction to our Craycast Project. My students are researching print and online media, and they will be bringing it all together for a series of vodcasts. I also will be working with our Technology Integration Facilitator and Library Media Specialist; using Digital Communicator to transform two students into anchorpeople on a new network. I hope it is half as much fun for them as it has been for me to dream it!
Here is my vid.. be gentle...

How Has Technology Changed Our Lives?

That is the question that I posed today to my students. As a result of an online conversation I had with several educators regarding a GLEF story, I started to ponder the question myself.
It was a story (from 2001) where veteran teachers were essentially taught new technologies by elementary school teachers. I understand how those students are being empowered and are interacting socially and almost professionally on a higher level. I love how teachers are getting more familiar with technology in an informal setting. I just don't understand how it fits into our curriculum, as I believe that technology should be an extension of what is in the classroom (or another way to present the material for learning, assessment tool etc), but it should have some relationship to a content area.
Still thinking hard about it, I decided to assign this question to my students for this week's blog assignment. We had them brainstorm technologies that we use in our lives, and they came up with several.
Here are the questions that they will be blogging about:

1) Is technology important to you? Why or why not? Use specific details to prove
your opinion.
2) Do you consider yourself very good or close to an expert at
one piece of technology? What is it?
3) What part of technology do you hope
to learn about this year?
4) Is there any part of technology that you would
like to see used in schools someday?

Let's see how they do. Perhaps we can learn from our students... we shall see.

What Good Is It All Anyway?!?!?!

Last (school) year, we had a technology guru come to speak to those teachers that wanted to listen. He spoke about this thing called "Web 2.0". He got me excited and animated, and that is one of the reasons that I find myself in the T.E.A.M. program. I have a good, solid technology background, but things like social networking, blogs, WIKIs and the like didn't exactly blow me away. I understand how they help our students learns skills that are truly relavant today, and provide them with a basis for the competencies that they will need for tomorrow. They also provide a positive social outlet using the internet as a tool. With all of the talk of internet misuse nowadays, it is nice to hear that it still can be a good thing for interaction.
That being said... I now have my students blogging. They are commenting on curriculum related topics that we are exploring in our classroom. They are commenting and interacting with each other's writing. They are excited to be part of this, and they are amazed that our cluster map shows people in Europe, Asia and Australia checking out what they are writing.
We are currently doing online and print research related to a unit in our science curriculum. Students will be gathering information, organizing it and presenting it. We will be putting it together into a class vodcast. The students are obviously very excited about this.
One might be wondering "What the heck does this have to do with the title? This seems like it is working!" Here goes... I have seen quite a few student blogs outside of my classroom. I have seen students constructing WIKIs and the like. My big challenge is "How does this fit into my curriculum???" Encouraging social interaction and broadening thinking are definately things that I want for students, but as a classroom teacher, I am unfortunately (or is it fortunately) working within the constraints of the district and state curriculum. I made a post on my Classroom 2.0 page called "I'm ready to blog, but what about my students and my curriculum?" This feeling still stays. I have put together what I believe is a good, solid project that uses the internet among other resources. It will be neatly packaged using technology, but then.... the silence might come out again! "What next???" as I reach my hands towards the sky? How can I dissect my curriculum to find another golden egg? Blogging simply for the sake of blogging.. what good is that? So you can proudly proclaim to other educators that you are using the technology? How is it fitting into the curriculum? How is it improving the academic and/or social life of your students? Podcasts are cool, but how is it improving anything? What is it doing? Where does it fit in? Anyone can record a student narrating something and then publish it. It takes a teacher to provide a path for learning somewhere in the fun... away from the record button. That's what I am thinking about. What do you think?

Who, ME? SKEERED? NO WAY!

So many people speak about teachers fearing new technologies. I hear all the time how educators get into a groove and refuse to accept anything new. That is a crock. Sure, there are some teachers that are fearful (or perhaps cautiously critical) of the latest resource or media for student learning, but I'd like to think that it is because they know themselves as professional educators, and they don't want to mess with what works by taking a risk on something that might not. On the other hand, teachers must be free to 'make mistakes' with emerging technologies so that they can continue to grow and polish their craft. Add into the mix that we are dealing with dynamic, ever-changing customers (our students) and you can only imagine the challenge if you are out of the educational system.
Back to the fear. I say "I AIN'T SKEERED!" Technology does not scare or intimidate me in any way. I enjoy the challenge of a new software application or piece of hardware and learning its use. I like to 'play' with it, and I think that is something that teachers must be free to do. Of course, life does have a habit of getting in the way. Between work responsibilities, home and family responsibilities, and now T.E.A.M responsibilities, not to mention some time for yourself in all of this (it's a wonder I have time to do this blog!), having the time to invest is something that is very difficult to come by. I love to watch my students "play" with technology. Watching them using a computer to search out a video on crayfish, using the SMARTboard to splat their multiplication facts or even watching them writing comments to each other on the class blog... it is just awesome. They don't need to embrace the technology - their world has always had it.
My fear, or apprehension, comes from this. Once the technology is understood, it must be assessed. It must be examined to find what part of the curriculum it lends itself to. It must be analyzed and dissected so that each competency can be taught. Technology is often considered thematic; an extension to another subject area, but it can easily be its own entity.
I often find something great- whether from a colleague, professor, administrator etc. and think "Wow this is awesome! The kids will love it!" The problem is "How does it fit into my (our collective) curriculum?" That is the fear. We all know reading, writing and math are the cornerstones of education. Where does that new technology fit in? Does it have to fit in?
Deep thoughts with Dugger.... talk amongst yourselves...