"A portal to Connect Classrooms to the World: Global Citizens can Share Talents and Skills with Students. Teachers can find Global Citizens (Volunteers) willing to help in a field of interest that they are working on in their class."

FieldFindr: Where teachers can meet global citizens with skills to share.

It started with a post and a wiki, and now it has evolved into a Ning Network.

I humbly request your help so that WE can make this happen.  After you sign up, this forum post is a great place to start.

Thank you for contributing to this new site!

“You know the No. 1 complaint about school is that it’s boring because the traditional way it’s taught relies on passive learning,” Mr. Noguera said. “It’s not interactive enough.” Pedro Noguera (NYT)

I just watched David Warlick's K12 Online Conference Keynote: Inventing the New Boundaries.

Then I got an e-mail from Kris about an article coming out in the New York Times later today, titled: In Some Schools, iPods Are Required Listening.

They both reminded me of this post,

"Kids are going to text message. How are we going to make that work in our school?" - - - "When someone wants to ban something, I ask myself, how can we use this to help us in education? ‘It is a new tool’. Not obstacles but opportunities."   Chris Kennedy

 Which takes us back to the New York Times Article:

Ms. Poli said her Spanish-speaking students — known around the school as Pod People — have been able to move out of bilingual classes after just a year of using the digital devices, compared with an average of four to six years for most bilingual students. Winnie Hu

We have the capability to access like never before! Recently I have thought a lot about how things have changed, about how we digitally engage and interact in our world. There are so many opportunities available to us.

• Our lives are open, public and on display.

For under $100 you can have iLife '08 and produce, publish, print and share what ever you want with the world. Fifteen years ago $10,000 couldn't have given you the same opportunities... and there are free versions of similar (and some better) tools popping up all the time.

• Online networks help to define us.

My Blog, My Flickr, My Space, My Facebook, My Friends, My Profile, My Second Life, My del.icio.us, MyBlogLog, My Ning Network, My Twitter, My-Whole-Life-Connected-and-On-Display-For-Anyone-And-Everyone-To-See...

• Growing access to customizable tools and networks.

Maps of the future are being used as a catalyst for conversation. As Mark Van't Hooft of Ubiquitous Thoughts notes, the map "...lists half a dozen external forces that will affect education in the next decade in the areas of family and community, markets, institutions, educators and learning, and tools and practices. With regards to digital tools, it is noteworthy that the focus seems to be on mobile and connected devices, in an environment that favors personalization/customization AND networking/connectedness at the same time."

• Personalized learning that responds to a learner's needs.

Machines are finding creative answers to problems... This site, Think Artificial, also introduced me to Virtual Tutors: Launched in March, uMind "...employs AI to create a virtual tutor that recognizes and adapts to the student's limitations and emotional distress. The instructor knows when a student is stumped and activates extra teaching modules on the specific subject."

• Life extended beyond the physical world.

Moving beyond just Web2.0 sharing. The first time I saw Gary Hayes' "THE CHANGING INTRAWEB - FROM 1.0 to 3.0" was the first time I considered the possibility of Web3.0. Today there seems to be a very real weaving of real-life and virtual realities for more than just entertainment. We will find ourselves engaging in, and fully integrating with, a digital universe -- a metaverse -- "This ubiquitous cloud of information is like electricity to children of the 20th century: essentially universal, expected and conspicuous only in its absence."

---

Obstacles

Here is what I said in a comment on Carolyn's post: 

Jessica Hagy uses graphs to make sense of our world. She is deft at finding hidden truths in places we all look at, but are blind to. I will share one such graph with you now, and link to two more on her blog.... head there and find your own favorites.

Interesting people are interested.

 

 I have spoken about Learning Conversations before, but this little cue card says so much... for Jessica Hagy 'A 'graph' is worth a thousand words!'

But we can't just complain about the current state of education... 

What are you gonna do about it?

Complaints do not move us forward, action does. After all...

Yes, there is always another option.

We need to dream, but we also need to be grounded enough to know what is possible... and we have to follow through and implement our plans. 

Thanks for the inspiration Jessica!

I have 2 blog posts on the go right now that I can't get myself to complete.

One is on Digital Citizenship which looks at a post by Vicky A. Davis. The concepts I am formulating are in need of some more deep thought, and I don't know when I will get to it?

The second post is on a 1-1 project in our district. I invited myself to a presentation for parents of students receiving computers for the project. Although the post is almost done, (and sitting in a Google document), I'm feeling bitter about my lack of availability of computers to teach my Planning 10 classes and so I don't think I can complete the post until my frame of mind is one that can frame the post in the positive light I feel it deserves. (I feel childish admitting that, but that's where I'm at right now.)

---

 A third post has been looming in my head, but my feedreader fed it to me in the form of someone else's post: It’s time for some perspective here  by Kelly Christopherson.

Here is a little more perspective: I am attempting to fully engage, but still can't keep up... I've been to Second Life, but can't find anything useful there... I don't Twitter (yet?)... and to me Ustream seems like nothing more than a car accident that everyone is slowing down to look at...

All these tools are technological with only the potential to be pedagogical... but they aren't designed with pedagogy in mind. And so with regards to education, I wonder if those in the lead are actually worth following? Will Richardson has a great blog, but I'm not going to give him and his buddy 45 minutes of my time to get information that a 4 paragraph summary of their talk could give me!

...And as for the big hype around backchannels... why do people think this is something worth having transcribed? If a backchannel is used correctly -in my humble, 'perspective from the outside looking in', opinion- then it would influence the presenters, and so the meaningful components would be integrated into the presentation. As for any 'interesting sidebar conversations' that happen- they are mostly relevant in context with the presentation and if they are worth expanding on and investigating... great, investigate them and blog them for me, just don't ask me to read 200+ comments to find a gem in the rough. Backchannels have tremendous value in the 'here-and-now', during a presentation, but what's with all the analysis after the fact? My point is that not only do I not have time for all these new tools, these new tools are time consumers that don't add to my learning experience in a meaningful way.

Going back to Kelly's post, he states:

"Primarily, little has changed with education despite all the tools. I firmly believe that until we examine the curricula, change some of those objectives and rework others, making it relevant to the students, no amount of cool tool is going to create change."

I couldn't have said it better! 

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[Pink Floyd tune in my head... clocks ticking/bells chiming] The coordination of the Graduation Transitions Program at our school is consuming so much of my time. I have to be realistic about what else I can do!

• How much of the K12Online07 conference will I participate in?
• Is FieldFindr worth spending time on?
• Am I Ning-ing for my Planning 10 class project or blogging?
• When will I finish my other posts?

 I could go on but I think my point is made, and I want to turn my questions outward...

• Am I the only one who feels like a 30 hour day would still be too short?
• Are there others out there who wonder what kind of commitment it will take for a teacher to be technologically savvy enough to meaningfully engage students with all these new tools?
• Are we focusing too much on the tools and not enough on pedagogy?
• Will educational structures change fast enough to provide our students with a relevant education?
• ... and for that matter... What would an ideal education look like today?

 

---

 

*Update: What technology should do for us...

I won't violate the copyright, so I will just provide a link:

 Learning Authentically in the Language Arts Classroom by Jamie McKenzie

See the bulleted criteria under 1. Rationale ...

I think that if the use of technology is authentic in this way, then the technology is being used appropriately in education. (Rather than just to play with the newest toys, as I seem to be noticing with Ustream- more on this misguided 'use of technology in education' in my next post). Also noteworthy, the author's Anti-Prensky article.

You can go to the K12Online page or to Chris' wiki page.

To put it simply... there is something here for everyone!

Description
This presentation takes participants along my journey into integrating 2.0 applications and “21st Century Learning” into my pedagogy. The presentation will show how teacher driven assignments and projects teach students some of the skills they need to use these new technologies to enhance their learning. Scribe Posts, Growing Posts and E-Portfolios will provide participants with three different activities to do with their students. The final part of my presentation takes participants into “unprojects”. Participants will learn how to create “unprojects”. For the veteran teacher who is using 2.0 in their classroom this is for you. See how students are more creative and show more enthusiasm towards assignments when they are in charge of their learning.

 This is where the future of education should be heading... Kudos to Chris Harbeck!

- - - - -

Unfortunately I will not be participating in the CUEBC Conference with Will Richardson. He comes all the way to my neighbourhood and I have to miss him! Fortunately I am missing this so that I can help out at a Student Leadership Retreat with my school. I have run these camps for many years (and have resources to share). This year I am helping out rather than leading. I look forward to this, and I hope to learn a lot with the advantage of a different (less stressful) perspective. Joni, is a great leader who truly lives by the mantra I borrowed from Dave Sands, "I teach leadership not followship". I wish I could do both events, but at least I am doing something that I will enjoy and learn from. You can do the same by heading to one of Chris' links above.

Well, I've been at school for just over 14 hours and my mind is officially mush. I'm creating the paperwork needed for the new Grad Transisions Program so that I can give the Grade 11's and 12's in my school all the new documents for this year. I plan to be paperless for the Grade 10's but time and technology constraints won't allow it right now.  A quick post and I'm home to bed!

- - - 

This is a pdf I am including in the package going out to the Grade 12's: Employability Skills 2000+ 

"The skills you need to enter, stay in, and progress in the world of work—whether you work on your own or as a part of a team."

Is it just me or is this a very Web1.0 / behind-the-times document? Where is the emphasis on Collaboration, or Synthesis, or even perhaps Re-mixing Information?

I noticed under Communicate:

• share information using a range of
information and communications technologies
(e.g., voice, e-mail, computers)

...and under Think & Solve Problems:

• readily use science, technology and
mathematics as ways to think, gain and
share knowledge, solve problems and
make decisions

But the document seems lacking... and now my tired eyes see why! In the brochure I just noticed that the print date was May of 2000. No document made for back then is going to hit on many of the Employability Skills for 2007+... which in turn will be outdated for Employability Skills for 2010+...

However, the document will have to do for next Tuesday. Please point me to an updated resource if you can find the time- Thanks.

- - -

Back to work

(A post in under 20 minutes- a record for a slow blogger like me!)

Below is a Halloween Scavenger Hunt I did on a (private) Ning Network that I created for a class Youth and Philanthropy Initiative (YPI) project I am doing in my two Planning 10 classes.

The scavenger hunt does the following:

1. Introduces students to flickr and , and;
   
2. It teaches them to insert and site a photo appropriately.
3. Points them to my YPI delicious links that I am starting to collect.
4. Has them re-watch an amazing video I linked to in the video section, (Here is the youtube link for you - I highly recommend that you watch it!)
5. Revisits a meaningful link from yesterday's lesson.
6. Has students find and quote another student on the site.
7. Has them start looking for charities that they may eventually present on.
8. Looks at a local grassroots shelter.
9. Teaches them more about YPI
10. Some spooky Halloween-ish/PhotoShop kind of fun.
11. Makes them do something silly at the end.

Some fun in the classroom, with a little learning going on in the background.

Here is the post:

____________________________________________________________

Happy Halloween - Time to go on a scavenger hunt... For treats of course!

Make sure you number all your items!

Create a blog post with the title "Scavenger Hunt" and answer/do the following...

1. Go to this site:
http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/by-nc-sa-2.0/
What does "by-nc-sa" mean?

2. Find a "by-nc-sa" photo that you consider spooky/scary and put it on your blog. Link to the actual photo AND give the photographer credit like I did below (I linked to his profile).

Halloween Moon Over Kamadan by FlipSide3 / Adam Eakins
(You aren't allowed to use one of his photos for this challenge)

3. Create a link to one of the "Truss' YPI del.icio.us links" found on the Main Page.

4. In the World on Fire video, how much did Sarah McLachlan spend on a Mobile Medical Unit in India?

5. For yesterday's assignment you looked at Stories in pdf files. Name one story title from each of the two pdf files that were linked to. (One story title from each file, that's two story titles.)

6. Find one blog post here on our site about the Spirit of Giving (that is not your own). Quote something nice/interesting from that post and give the person credit. For example, if my post was about the Spirit of Giving instead of Empathy, you could have done something like this:

"In the service of others we learn meaningful lessons ourselves. Mark spoke of developing empathy in kids. In so doing, he wondered if standardized testing 'taught' our kids anything meaningful? When do they learn about empathy and love?" David Truss

Put the person's words in quotes and italicize them.

7. Find and link to 5 charity home pages. In one sentence tell me what the charity does. Make sure that the link is the title of the charity. At least one charity must be local (in the lower mainland).
Your links should look like this:
The Terry Fox Foundation: Raises money for cancer research.

8. Go HERE. What is the title of this page?
Find the link to the 'Tri Cities Mat Program -- Port Coquitlam, BC'. (It is not on the first page) Clink on the link and find out if this caters to Men or Women. Tell me this in a sentence so that I know what you are talking about.

9. Go to the Toskan Casale Foundation web site. Copy and paste these questions into your blog with the answers.
How many schools were involved in 2006/2007?
So, how much money was donated?
Find and name one BC school that was involved last year, (besides ours).
What are the Granting Guidelines?

10. Here is a creepy (or is it cute?) photo.

It gives credit right on the image to Worth1000.com and so you don't need to link to it, as I did anyway. Go to this link and add a photo of your choice. Tell me the actual title and make one up yourself.
This is called 'Spider Squirrel" and my title is 'Chipmunkula' (I think that this was photoshoped with a chipmunk, not a squirrel).

11. If you have finished all 10 tasks and posted your blog, then all you have to do now is sing the alphabet backwards and you get a treat.

Congratulations!