Ideas and Thoughts from an EdTech

One presentation I’m working on is called “Lesson#1 Share everything”. It’s based on Robert Fulgham’s book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. His first lesson is share everything. Of course my presentation will center around publishing and sharing ideas. I could write a book called All I Really Need to Know I Learned From My Network.  Maybe not everything but obviously those who are part of my learning network and others can attest to its power and importance. This is the basis of the network, people’s desire and ability to share their learning.

I get really frustrated when someone tells me about an outstanding teacher and I can’t find hide nor hair of their work online. What a waste. If they are as good as others say they are, why not share that with others?  They’ll tell me their kids made a great video, learned something great from an experiment or gave a great presentation but it means very little to me unless I can be part of it too. But even those who have the means and understanding aren’t sharing like they ought to. Some even offline don’t share much. Part of it is culture. I remember the first conference I attended as a young teacher. In order to be reimbursed for my expenses, I had to complete not only an expense form but a form asking what I had learned and if I would be willing to share it with other teachers. I anxiously filled out all the neat stuff I had learned and happily checked the box indicating I would love to share. Never heard from it again. There was no mechanism in place that allowed for sharing other than the informal discussions in staff rooms. Most schools do not have expectations that sharing is part of our job. I don’t think we’ve always done this as some feel. This has to change. I’ve built it into my classes for pre-service teachers. Part of their grade is based on their contribution to others’ learning.  Our ideas about what we share has to change as well.

Claire Thompson writes,

I know that I am struggling to come up with a meaningful way to incorporate blogs into my science classes. If what I’m planning could just as easily be done as a traditional assignment, then why do it using blogs? An added challenge is that my classes consist of small groups of student’s working asynchronously. If we’re going to blog, it is going to have to be about big ideas in science, not the specific details of, say, the cell cycle.

But Claire, it’s not about you…it’s about sharing. Someone is interesting in the cell cycle. Read this if you don’t believe me. While I know that folks like Clarence, Darren, Chris and Kathy are awesome teachers, part of what makes them awesome is that we can see what they’re doing. There are other teachers doing good work, we just don’t see it.

So if you’re doing good work:share. If you’re doing a lousy job:keep it to yourself.

Image:Sharing by furiousgeorge81
http://flickr.com/photos/furiousgeorge81/177926979/

Technorati Tags: robertfulgham, clairethompson, darrenkuropatwa, clarencefisher, kathycassidy, chrisharbeck, davecormier

I started teaching my second online class at the University of Regina.(in large part due to the recommendation from Alec Couros)  Last summer I taught my first, totally online save for an optional face to face meeting. This class was scheduled to be a face to face class, students thought it was going to be face to face and found out tonight, that was changed. (a strike late last year of administrative workers and others likely meant course offerings were not updated and thus the confusion). I didn’t know, they didn’t know but think I managed to convince them it would be a good thing and after some dry runs of the technology, establishment of their shiny new blogs, we’re ready to take off and learn.

I’m so looking forward to this. I love this stuff, I’m passionate about it and  I live it everyday. I’m excited to be able to watch and learn, share and teach with largely a group of first year pre-service education students. Here’s are the main themes of this course:

• Learning is social and connected
• Learning is personal and self-directed
• Learning is shared and transparent
• Learning is rich in content and diversity

So much of the work I do in my day job is similar in all but one key way…TIME. Even the best case scenarios allow teachers 4 or 5 days a year for professional learning of this nature. How can they possibly begin to do the kind of learning and thinking that my students will do? We will meet every week for a few hours, they will spend hours on their own and with each other learning. We will be in constant communication. The teachers that I work with must try and carve out time after work to begin to reflect and embrace the idea of a changing classroom. Ever see the video of building a plane while it’s flying? Perfect analogy for today’s teachers. My students get to build it on the ground where it’s supposed to be.

This is not so much me reflecting on how hard it is for teachers to have the opportunity to learn but more on how excited I am to be able to spend some quality time helping these young people consider how they’ll be able to create spaces that are fun, engaging, personal, relevant and authentic. Those aren’t buzz words for me either, I really try to foster that in all the work I do. It’s not easy all the time but it’s what I believe is important. What makes it hardest is not being able to spend the time to really get it. That’s what it’s like for most teachers and I have to find ways to live with that. I can’t expect big things from a teacher who is already maxed out from a day filled with all kinds of distractions, duties and stresses that at times deplete their energy down to almost nothing.  So I make adjustments, try to support them in small ways, give them bite sized chunks of ideas and because most are smart and want to be better, they do pretty well. But most will say to me over and over, “I just wish I had more time”.  This phrase is echoed throughout the walls of most schools on the planet.

But for the next four months, I get to work with people who have the time; not the expertise, not the experience but the time. It’s gonna be good.

Update: Another surprise to me was that many of my students are Arts Education students so if you know of some great teachers of arts education (music,dance,drama and visual art) showcasing their work via blogs, wikis, podcasts, whatever, leave the link here….it would be greatly appreciated.

Technorati Tags: uregina, aleccouros