That is the description of one of the youngest bloggers I have ever bumped into in cyberspace.

She reflects the simplicity with which kids deal with technology…just like that.

Let me tell you about Maria, my new cyber-buddy.

Maria is 9, goes to St. Dominic’s, an international school on the outskirts of Lisbon, where she is expected to receive a “top education”. Here all classes are in English and based on a student-centred, inquiry based learning approach. Therefore, there are no books. There is a set of constructivist strategies developed by the teachers instead. However, computers haven’t been in their roll of activities until someone special came along.

Her name is Ramona and she lives along the coast, just outside the city.

Let me tell you about Ramona, my long time cyber-friend.

Ramona is more than 9, goes to St Dominic’s, where she engages students in ICT activities with an amazing success. During the last term while replacing a teacher on sick leave, she and her students worked on 2 class blogs ( 1 & 2 ) as part of the classes’ activities. It was her strategy to get the students’ attention. She introduced them to the educational side of cyberspace. It was amazing to see how the kids took part in the activities and how they even worked extra just to let their teacher know that they were appreciative and approving of her plan. I had 6 kids who did ppt without me asking – she once told me. How amazing is that?

Meanwhile their regular classroom teacher returned and a CyberKids group was formed. Ramona is the leader of the project; Maria one of the participants. They are about to start a new blog.

Maria already started hers. On her own! She is a typical girl. She is into fashion. She is also a reflection of her generation. She blogs about her interests. And although her blog is not perfect, and although there are spelling mistakes there, three things are to be recognised: (1) she is using technology, (2) she is exercising her English language skills and (3) above all she is connected to the (cyber)world, and (4) having a lot of FUN. Actually there were 4 things to point out after all.

 
These are the future university students. Can we ignore their background?

Lately I have been following a parallel discussion on the use of web tools by the students within schools, universities, etc.

Should we let our students use blogs and wikis that are available for everyone to use and see? Is wikipedia a reliable resource? Are password protected (gated?!) systems like Blackboard, Moodle, etc answering all the students’ learning expectations? Are these so called Virtual Learning Environments adjusted to the Web 2.0, i.e., to the learners’ realities, or are they just being used as mere information repositories? 

I know that there a handful of good examples where the use of educational technologies is concerned, but there is also a lot to do. We need a more hands-on, dynamic learning approach. I think that in some cases we are still on teaching, not learning, mode.

Should we still be calling ourselves teachers/lecturers, etc or should we be considering our role as learning leaders? I like the word leader. It’s inspiring. I served in the Portuguese Navy for more than 4 years and there I met two kinds of people: the ones that led and the ones that gave orders. The first ones were sure of themselves. They were just one more member in the team, who everyone looked up to, because they were able to inspire the rest to accomplish a given mission through their guiding, knowledgable and experienced hands. A team sprit would immediately be established in those occasions and everyone would work to give their best. The second set was less certain of what they were doing and were never able to mingle with the rest of the group. Imposing and controlling everything we did was their idea of guiding people. In those situations everybody worked to accomplish the minimum requirements.     

I feel that we still have some reservations about losing “control of our classroom”, but haven’t we already? Our kids are using technology at home, in cybercafés, at their friends’, or any place they can have access to a connection since they were born. And they are using it with proficiency.

The greatest challenge for the educators now is not to prevent the students from using it, but to provide them with the educational perspective, by making them experience the web with a didactic touch. I still don’t understand why there is this need to control everything.

We have to accept the fact: technology is here and it came to stay. It is part of our lives. Make the best of it.

And learning, and even teaching, is not about supplying information, is about working it out. It is about moving from a passive to a more active perspective; about moving from web 1.0 to the web 2.0.

Here is a short video about the Web 2.0.

If focuses on some of the most used, available tools within the educational realm,  especially where the learning of languages is concerned.

This video was created by Graham Stanley and reports about the use of blogs, wikis, podcasts and SL. It is a good example! 

It is worth watching it!

Thanks Graham!

I enjoy listening to podcasts, watching the videos available on youtube, checking the photos in Flickr. I also use google and the wikipedia on a daily basis, take part in webcasts, and skype enthusiastically, but there is nothing like a good blog.

I am a blog fan. I read blogs, I subscribe to blog feeds, I comment on several blogs and I write for three different blogs – not all of them are academic related, I am afraid, nor should they have to be. Two of them suit merely social purposes – it gets me in contact with my friends, while the third also suits my academic interests.

And so, I think I can consider myself a blogger. I feel I am a blogsphere citizen.  

What I most like about blogs is the fact that I can communicate my ideas without being directly exposed to my audience. It gives me a greater sense of security, and creativity too. Call me coward…but on the blogsphere I don’t blush or stutter, because I feel nervous, when I am communicating my ideas. I can also take (my own) time, if I need to, to express my ideas in a clearer way. In addition, I feel more confident sharing my thoughts or commenting on someone else’s reflections through the comment feature, since I can do it in a more reflexive, thorough way.

I also LOVE receiving feedback in the shape of a comment. It adds sense to my texts and tells me that there are people on the other side of the screen reading what I write. And while sharing opinions or even holding opposite thoughts, the fact is that we are communicating and discussing perspectives. 

By blogging, I have developed my writing skills, been able to develop a critical voice and ultimately I have also improved my performance in f2f situations.

Besides that, I value the blog world, because it allows me to connect, and interact, if I choose to, with people from all over the world – or should I say from all around the blogsphere?  It also enables me to get in touch with “thinkers” I look up to in a more informal way. I get to learn from them – often by lurking – and eventually form my own conclusions about the topics and issues being raised there.

Blogs are an important and dynamic source of information to me.

One of my main dilemmas in my teacher (training) experience has been to convince my peers to use what the web 2.0 has to offer, as to give their educational practices a fresh touch.

As a teacher, I always felt I needed more than a book and a piece of chalk to keep my students’ enthusiasm, and sometimes, even to regain their lost interest in learning. I started using technologies. I never meant, and I still don’t, to use it as a replacement of myself, but as a way which would help me help students in their learning process. This is about the students and learning. This is not about teachers and definitely not about teaching.

I started with small tasks, in order to gain confidence in what I was doing. My first attempt was to create structured activities (treasure hunts) about a certain topic, which required them to do some online research to get the information they needed. After that, I started implementing email exchanging in imaginary scenarios, as a component of those activities. All of a sudden we were blogging and podcasting in and out of the classroom, and we even had the chance to make a contribution to the wikipedia, which made everyone proud. We were officially there in cyberspace for everyone to see. We were learning – myself included - and having a lot of fun. 

I have to say that the tasks weren’t perfect, and neither were all the contributions. Not everyone engaged with the same enthusiasm, but I guess everyone got something in the end.

In my working environment only one person was willing to learn about what I was doing and also eager to improve her practice. We started discussing about it during class breaks. The discussion was progressively transferred to chatrooms and tea meetings, where we talked about the benefits of it in the classroom and planned collaborative tasks. By sharing our ideas with one another, we were able to come up with some nice learning strategies, which we ended up applying in our daily jobs.

The rest of our colleagues never showed to be interested, although we tried to show them what we were doing. They always kept a distance. I don’t know if it was because they considered the machine would replace them or if they were just reluctant about trying it. We were never able to convince them, despite of our slogan: If we can do it, you certainly can too! And that is SO true! We were, and are, not computer experts. We come from the Education - Social Sciences -  background.

Parallel to our petite society (2 people in a language school), we decided to join an online learning group, the WiA, which was already mentioned here. Members of this group are all volunteers. There we get to communicate with people from all around the world who are also thirsty to learn more and share what they’ve got. If there is any distance among us, it is merely physical, because we are connected in purpose, interest and practice.

And so my question is: how to engage people?

Graham Attwell mentioned that the best way is to involve them practically. I couldn't agree more. I am a hands-on learner. I learn better by doing.

But first people have to be willing to be involved…I guess!

Then, there is also the pedagogical issue. Some people want to get involved, but tend to focus more on the technological side of it, than on its effectiveness and learning outcomes.

I want to prepare a session about what learning (and moderating) online implies. I am curious to know how many people will enrol for it… how many will see the benefit of it…  

Because one thing is for sure, you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink… especially if it is not thirsty.

More than half way through ... 6 hours to go to be more exact, as I publish this post. 

It has been a very hectic weekend in a very frenetic, compelling and engaging virtual conference.  Actually, the only virtuality has been the means through which people connected to each other, and shared, discussed and presented their ideas to one another.

As you can see by the amazing, overwhelming roll of presentations, this was a mega event. A convergence of experiences, of multi-perspectives, practices and, above all, of people! Once again, the WiA were able to create bridges across the seven seas and bring people from the 5 continents together; not without a little help from technology, of course. An inclusive technology that is able to reach out to a very diverse set of individuals. The technology was hardly felt – apart from some unforeseen, last minute software/hardware glitches that always happen - as opposite to the human-ware that has been felt throughout this e-experience.

Sessions were recorded and will be made available soon for the ones who couldn’t attend or the ones who would like to revisit it.

I would also like to point out a couple of sessions in particularly, although all of them are worth checking.

Dafne Gonzalez and Arnold Muehren hosted a brilliant session about there Seven innovative dimensions of e-learning   (hear to it here and see the slides here)

Check out what they said about the pedagogical approach and the practical, real learning examples they presented the audience with.

Another session that I would like to emphasize is the Conversation about CoPs Etienne Wenger invited the audience to.

Many ideas were presented. The discussion was very engaging, but still, and as it usually happens in these situations, much more was left to say.

I invite you to listen to it and keep the discussion here. Learn more about the WiA plurality of geographical spaces, find out what we mean by Chaotic Navigation, and much, much more.  The slides that were used can be found here.

Another superb presentation was the one my Stephen Downes. A good reflection about knowledge and the way people learn (in a web 2.0 way). Here is the recording and the slides.

I am looking forward to hearing your opinion!    

 

...a great talk by Howard Rheingold on The Pedagogy of Civic Participation

 

I support you all the way Howard. We urgently need to find ways to guide (young) people to be responsible for their learning, and their actions in general, and develop their own voices (critical thinking). And fast!

 

"The Future of Education is an online conference exploring trends impacting education - K-12, higher education, and corporation training.

An international panel of leading thinkers and visionaries will present on topics such as knowledge and authority, technology and art, and complexity science. Daily live discussions (which will be recorded) will be held June 4 - 8. Keynote presenters are listed below. In addition to daily keynote presentations, a series of excellent 20 - 30 minute presentations will address how various experts perceive tomorrow’s education system and processes.View the Schedule of Presentations for correct times.

To extend the live presentations, we will hold ongoing discussion in Moodle - allowing conference attendees to participate actively in the conference."

http://www.umanitoba.ca/learning_technologies/conferences/foe/  

 

For the next few days I will be teleporting myself to this discussion too.

Hope to meet some of you there. Interesting points of view are being share there. It is worth checking it!