Unable to raise both hands at the same time...

Ryan Bretag post in Raise Your Hands, how we are all just has poor as those committing educational malpractice if we do not share best practices, etc.

In a way he is right. I talked about what excites me, what we are doing in class, and over time, others stopped listening to me. i retreated into my room. But that is not the best way to create change for the future. I need to be a little more subversive.

So, now what? Follow some of his suggestions. Get others hooked in different ways - I am working on these.

What are his suggestions?

1. Dedicate a portion of your day to honing your professional practice
There are professional learning opportunities around every corner both locally and virtually. Observing your peers is a great way to learn and technology has made it quite easy. For instance, Ustream and other video technology make it so you can watch your peer teach live without having to be in the room or you can watch later if you are teaching during that time. Another great way to begin learning on a daily basis and one of my favorite ways of honing my professional practice is through exploring, reflecting, and responding to my RSS Reader on a daily basis — something David Jakes often mentions every professional educator should be able to for 15 minutes a day. Thus, your action item is to begin leveraging video technology to observe your peers and establish an RSS Reader to begin reading on a daily basis.

Note to self: Doing that but mostly responding to posts. Need to work on original creation of my own.

2. Establish a professional learning network
Technology affords us every opportunity to develop a virtual network that lives and breathes 24/7. What use to be limited to traditional face to face, MOOs and list-servs has evolved into expansive networks that offer an abundance of learning opportunities: Nings, Twitter, Ustream, Diigo, and virtual worlds like Second Life. Every single day, events by leading theorists and expert practitioners are taking place and open to anyone around the world. How often are you taking place in these? How often are you grabbing a colleague and helping them join in the learning? Thus, your action item is to begin establishing learning networks like Classroom 2.0.

Note to self: Due to family time, I stopped looking around the Ning. I know, I know, I would probably learn more, but I need to do what I need to do. This is my next step. after all I want to begin collaborations next year. How am i going to do that?

3. Establish and maintain a virtual professional learning space that fosters shared knowledge and resources
Technology has made it extremely simple to start and maintain a space. No longer does it take HTML knowledge to start a website and begin sharing your resources. A simple wiki allows one to create a powerful learning space allowing for shared knowledge and resources that is easy to update and to promote collaboration. Given the built-in discussion board, it also allows for the opportunity to discuss these resources so that everyone is growing from the collaboration around the ideas. The other piece of technology that makes sharing easy is social bookmarking. Thus, your action item is to create an account on a social bookmarking platform like Delicious or Diigo as well as create a wiki for your professional learning space and begin sharing today.

Note to self: Send out my wiki info more often. Starting Diigo tomorrow in an online class - could learn it myself but love to interact with others. I will probably like this better than delicious.

4. Make professional reflection and scholarly work a priority and make it public.
I am a firm believer that each professional should have a blog where your reflective practices and scholarly work are public. As Barth so clearly articulates in Turning Book Burners into Lifelong learners, “only when [teachers] disclose their learning will they fully foster lifelong learning in others”. By blogging about your practices, you are embracing the concept of growth, openly examining your assumptions and beliefs about teaching and learning, and acknowledging the value in collaboration with a glocal community. Thus, your action item is to create a blog and begin actively using it as to professionally reflect as well as use it to document action research.

Note to self: Try to change the use of blogging as a professional development that is actually counted.

5. Model professional learning for colleagues, students, and parents
Be proud of your explorations. Let it be known what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how others could join in with you. Talk about what you are learning! Being open doesn’t mean being vulnerable! Share your blog and wiki with pride! Focus on collaboration and networking with all you do and bring your colleagues along kicking and screaming if need be. Thus, your action item is to share your blog, wiki, social bookmarks, and learning experiences with as many people as possible in order to promote local collaboration and networking.

Note to self: Keep trying - you never know what makes someone finally come around!

Take a deep breath, create some plans, and go for it. retreating into the woodwork would be worse right now than not having changed at all. After all, our founding forefathers were out there and visible in the high treason that they pronounced. How better to make a change?

Student survey in Academic Biology

I surveyed students as to what they wanted to learn more about in the present unit as well as the rest of the year.

Additionally I asked them what they liked and disliked concerning the current range of activities in the classroom.

Here is what they said:

So what does this mean?

On the most part, students like working in groups. Of those that did not, they are probably in response to large projects. Even though they had small tasks attached to it, students have a hard time keeping track of tasks and seeing the big picture. I suspect that actually becomes easier the more they do this. Why? Perhaps they are so used to all the activities and bits of information they have learned have really been disconnected from the whole. (Learn it quick for the test - we won't need it later!) How can we change all of this if all classes change their approach to teaching?

My next step is to ask different questions near the end of the year.

The End of School?

Dean Shareski writes in " The End of Religion and The End of School"

“Personal Learning comes as a subversive education model outside the boundary markers of traditional schooling, and in the process makes school itself obsolete.”

This is a retooling of a quote from the book: The End of Religion. He goes on to say:

Without getting into too much detail about his talk and book, it became apparent to me that what many are fighting for is to not necessarily abandon school but to eliminate the structure and traditions of school that interfere with learning. This is hard work.

and:

those of us working inside these institutions recognize that the boundaries imposed on us by the very structure of the organizations aren’t very effective. The structure of current schools was developed largely in an industrial age where it met a particular need at a particular time. So too did the religious structures. Jesus came to change that. In schools our need for change is precipitated by many things certainly access to information and people being a major force. Just as with many churches that are not purely focused on their religiosity, neither are all schools focused on schooliness. There are moments, individuals and leaders looking to make school more about learning and less about structure. When it comes to my specific role as someone charged with making technology seamless in our schools, it’s clear to me that just as there are those bound by structures of school there are those who see often see technology as the structure we ought to believe in. At times I’m guilty of this.

What do I like most about his post? These following sentences:

I need to see that learning is the goal. Okay so this may seem obvious but in the daily grind it’s easy to become the Pharisees of modern education. We have difficulty when students don’t respond to school the way we think they ought to. Personal learning has little place in many of our classrooms. The frustrations of those of us who recognize this hypocrisy grows every day. We are looking for someone who can change this. Someone with authority who can break down the traditions and structure that so often bind us from what learning should look like.

He suggests expanding your network of ideas. I continually do. I would like a better network here. I would like others to recognize what I have been reading, to expand their research, and increase their networks. Isolation can kill change.

I know a handful of students who understand what I am talking about and have let go of school structure to be a learner. They probably did not need me to do that. How do I convince other students of all the possibilities that being a true learner can offer? More importantly, how do I convince the parents? I don't think they get it either.


Tags: bruxycavey, themeetinghouse, clayburell, stephendownes, personallearing, endofreligion, deanshareski

My reply to Drape's Takes post

My response to Drape's Takes post concerning an educator who is appalled with his students' technology skills:

Sue Waters from Australia hits it on the head. I have also thought about the topic of this post as well. As a Science teacher, I like what Paul has to say. I have written posts here concerning thinking like a scientist and critical thinking.

I have had to let go of my assumptions and focus on teaching my students to think for themselves and become learners. There are tasks they are given and their work uses one specific tool - the wiki for publishing and collaboration. All the other tools add to how they tell their information.

No matter how many times I use it, I will not be the best at powerpoint. It is not what I like to use for most projects. I give students choices of formats as well.

Am I the best at this? No. But I am learning from my students as well. Even though my skills are more superior, what I had hoped for is now happening. Some of my students are problem solving publication of class content using new tools I have not taught them yet. And not from my most literate student.

Personally, my son (13) is far superior to his sister (16) in computer creation and use. She uses it socially - he creates content and on his own time. Not sure what the rest of his classmates are like but I will find out next year.

Regarding "Eliminating Loser Loops..."

Vicki Davis has a wonderful post about Eliminating Loser Loops: Free yourself and your school for success! on her blog. In her discussion of a unneeded, useless loop that caused her network to crash.

She discusses administrative loops and those who reach the teachers. If the mission of the school is the students, anything needless that does not increase the learning of the students is an unnecessary loop. Unfortunately, most of this is bureaucratic.

I need to first say that my principal does a great job of keeping the bureaucracy away from the teachers. My last principal was the same way. I have been in a district where that was not so. It is unfortunate that these last two principals have those useless loops occupying their attention as their missions or goals are difficult to meet due to these interruptions.

I would like our lesson plans to have a little more flexibility. If classes are using project based learning, how can conventional lesson plans still be written? One would either have to change them continually through the week, or write them at the end of the week. In PBL, you know the goals, outcomes and objectives as well as the activities that will get you to that point. I actually created a template for this that I thought could be used with the conventional lesson plan. I have not found a way to do this yet.
How can this be used/changed/made better in order to show what we are doing? I feel I need to stick to the square lesson plan boxes which takes me out of the project frame of mind. If the formal lesson plan can be let go, will it change the way I approach a problem - in other words more student-centered vs. teacher-contrived?

But her point is more than the paper work that teachers and administrators do. It is also the point about what we ask students to do. They want it to be for more than "you will need to know it some day" or "we need to continue to practice it". She says:

We have to ask ourselves... what is the PURPOSE of what my students are creating? Can I expand the audience to be more than just the teacher? (IS it appropriate to expand the audience?) Can I better assess in another way?

The learning has to mean something. I am no longer just doing worksheets to measure this or that. But, is what I am doing right now truly purposeful as well? I need to continue to reflect upon this, ask for input from students, and ask for more reflection from students as well about their learning.

And while I am at it, I will look at the unnecessary loops elsewhere in my life. The stuff in the home and in the mind that wastes unnecessary time and attention.

tag: education, inspiration, loops, network, computer, Vicki Davis

Responding to Failure is an option

Tim at Assorted Stuff discusses that Failure is an option.

In his post, he discusses that students hate Math because they are taught how not to make mistakes and are penalized for doing so. One suggestion:

First among these is encouraging kids to experiment with concepts and processes instead of always expecting them to memorize and apply algorithms over and over (and over!).

He also links a great resource from one laptop that suggests changes in Math. Of their suggestions that can also be used in my science classes is:

• Focus on the difference between correlation and cause
• Ask how one should evaluate evidence
• Learn how to average with the t-test method

Tim also states:

In the real world, people learn from their mistakes and build on their failures as well as their successes.

In school, especially in how we teach arithmetic, mistakes are not permitted. Everything is right or wrong. There is no other option.

It’s no wonder, by the time students arrive at high school, most pretty much hate the thought of anything called “math”.

This is true not only of the lower level math students but also am seeing the same comments and loathing from the Academic students. It is worrisome. Whatever happened to learning from your mistakes? Of investigating with real data sets or using real world phenomena to investigate relationships? As I tell my students, everything in this universe comes down to a math relationship. Isn't it important that they be able to see those?

All teachers can cultivate the Habits of Mind necessary for students success.

Tags: education, math, olpc, learning

Working on my presentation skills

I love the blogosphere! Where else would I be introduced to conference information from places I cannot attend?

My recent example: PJHiggins of Chalkdust discusses in "The key to Moving People is Moving People" his attendance in Deborah Estes “Brain-Friendly Presentation Skills.” Really, I think we know these techniques but we forget them as we present. Maybe we forget them also when we teach students.

He questions:

What strategies were successful for us when we stood in front of students and helped them make sense of information? What can we take from our time in the classroom and make it work for us as presenters?

What I take from this:

1. Greet everyone who enters by shaking hands and addressing them by name. (Note to self: I will need to be early for this - 30 min. is mentioned!)
2. Keep your bio brief and limit the credentials by connecting with the experiences of all those in the audience.
3. Use storytelling to make connections to what you want to say.
4. Shake it up by doing something else than lecture. Don't fall back to safe. Find out what they know and move on from there. Also focus on reflection.
5. Move people around.

Some examples of what we did:

• Moved to another seat
• Turned and talked
• Four corners of the room (body voting)
• Invented names
• Hand voting (raise your hand and think of a number, use your fingers to represent the number, then find someone else in the room who has that number. When you do, discuss the topic with them).
• People bingo
• Touch blue (simply walk around the room and touch something blue)
• Take your neighbor for a walk around the room while discussing the topic at hand.

I am getting ready to present wiki teaching at the One to One Conference at Penn State. This is my second time presenting at a conference. The first time was a dialogue about writing across the curriculum in a small panel (no technology 13 years ago).

My plan now - use the wiki with the participants as the collaborators in order to teach the use of the wiki. I can use the ideas above for grouping the participants initially, showing them the collaborative nature of the wiki by using collaboration. Now off to formulate my plans, prompts, etc. to create an engaging, interactive presentation.

Tags: Technorati Tags: presentation, deborahestes, ascd08, ascd, brainresearch, pjhiggins

Another round of open pd!

Darren Draper and Robin Ellis are planning another round of open pd as discussed here.

I use wikis a lot (blogs I need to extend class use on), but I want to learn more. I am hoping to lear something new to make life easier. We can't learn it all on our own and the collective genius that is available during the pd is phenomenal!

The change to one hour is good and the time change may help. Though that will be time that we make dinner, the running kids around after dinner will not conflict.

Great idea for his district to participate differently as well - in the past his district was actually in the room while we participated from around the world. Now, his district will be doing the same (from home, classroom,etc.)! I have learned a lot and want to extend my knowledge on the topics from the other rounds. I am also anxious to see how this works. It would be an incredible model for our district to follow in providing professional development.

I am also going to promise to try not to multitask too much during the pd - except of course for making dinner!

Tags: openpd wikis blogosphere education technology professionaldevelopment , Robin Ellis , Darren Draper

On "PBL Research Summary: Studies Validate Project-Based Learning

Read the original post here.


The study spouts statistics from test scores as well as the use of laptops and technology in schools. Despite the statistics (which can always be argued in various ways), the value from the article is actually near the end:

Successful School Restructuring

A five-year study by University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers found that structural school reform works only under certain conditions:

1. Students must be engaged in activities that build on prior knowledge and allow them to apply that knowledge to new situations.

2. Students must use disciplined inquiry.

3. School activities must have value beyond school. In their report, "Successful School Restructuring," the researchers at Wisconsin's Center on Organization and Restructuring of Schools found that even innovative school improvements, such as portfolio assessment and shared decision making, are less effective without accompanying meaningful student assignments based on deep inquiry. Reseachers analyzed data from more than 1,500 elementary, middle, and high schools and conducted field studies in forty-four schools in sixteen states between 1990 and 1995.

Off to finish reading Reinventing Project -Based Learning by Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss.

As with everything else, this is an evolution in the way I teach. I am fully committed to this and work towards better practice in my classroom. (Now for more hours in a day - that would help!)

Tags: Project based learning, Suzie Boss, Jane Krauss, edutopia

How students explain the experiment...

Jeff Utecht blogs about Carol Jordan's use of video here as a means for students to explain a science experiment. I like seeing how other teachers use technology in different and new ways to transform learning.

I am using smaller examples in my classroom teaching. For example, students performed little experiments using ammonia, phenolphthalein indicator and various materials to demonstrate diffusion and osmosis first hand. Students followed a worksheet that guided them through the thinking and the parts of the stations they experimented at.

In the end, they were to choose one or two of the activities in the lab that best demonstrated their understanding of the processes of diffusion and osmosis. They used a picture they took of that part and related it to their discussion of difusion and osmosis. It was a great way for students to customize their delivery of information.

Many students chose a voicethead as their way of demonstrating knowledge in the cell portfolio (example here and also seen below) while others used a wiki page (example here).




Though I am a long way from where I want to be, I am focusing on students researching and creating content while using great technology is telling the story of their learning. wonderful ideas like Carol Jordan's really helps to expand my thinking!




Tags: connectivism, voicethread, jeff utecht, science, Carol Jordan

Another reason to teach Wikipedia...

Will Richardson writes about the controversy over Wikipedia. Why are schools not embracing this resource?

Many talk about the errors that they find. We have all read about the errors in Britannica vs. Wikipedia and that as Wikipedia is much easier to edit, the errors are actually minimal and quickly correctable.

Will posts an example of errors from a Physics textbook that is astounding in the amount and the severity of the errors. Add to the fact that most teachers would not catch the errors, that the errors can only be fixed in subsequent revisions (we use our books for 7+ years), and it is really not just the errors that are at the issue, but the ever changing landscape of facts themselves that are difficult to keep up with.

Because of this post, I decided to search for errors in our Academic Biology book from Prentice Hall. The errors can be viewed here. My decision to stop using the textbook is purely not based on these errors. The textbook is useful as a reference resource, but as with all resources, double checking the information is critical. I have students approach Wikipedia the same way.

After all, critically assessing facts and using it for problem solving and content generation is a more appropriate use of these resources than it is to just list a fact.

Tags: Will Richardson, Wikipedia

On "Web 2.0 is the Future of Education"

Steve Hargadon posts here about Web 2.0 and the future of education. I will not discuss the post in entirety. He discusses ten trends and here are a few ideas that caught my attention. The first concerns content overload with the explosion of publishing on the Internet:

I will also say that on a personal level, when people ask me the answer to content overload, I tell them (counter-intuitively) that it is to produce more content. Because it is in the act of our becoming a creator that our relationship with content changes, and we become more engaged and more capable at the same time. In a world of overwhelming content, we must swim with the current or tide (enough with water analogies!).

Steve goes on to offer the current shifts and where we are heading:

* From consuming to producing
* From authority to transparency
* From the expert to the facilitator
* From the lecture to the hallway
* From "access to information" to "access to people"
* From "learning about" to "learning to be"
* From passive to passionate learning
* From presentation to participation
* From publication to conversation
* From formal schooling to lifelong learning
* From supply-push to demand-pull

The following suggestions to educators are discussed:

1. Learn about web 2.0. My note: It is overwhelming, but start somewhere. Start small, find something useful and go from there.
2. Lurk. My note: How great to hear someone say that. After lurking for some time, and finally dipping my feet in, I know I learned a lot just by dropping in different places...
3. Participate. My note: By becoming part of the conversation (and I am not good at it yet), my learning has grown as well as my confidence. In actuality, I have put my practices in line with my belief of the need to be a life-long learner. (I always have, just not to this degree).
4. Digest this thought: The Answer to Information Overload Is to Produce More Information.
5. Teach content production. My note: I am still working on this. Not content restating, but content production.
6. Make education a public discussion.
7. Help build the new playbook. My note: So right and what I have been talking about. Students will not learn how to use the Internet, my space, cell phones, etc. correctly if we do not model it, use it, etc. We do not need to teach the technology, they can do that. We need to teach them to think, be critical in their thinking, and analyze.

Excellent post from Steve. After using technology for a year, it is not just another substitution for a poster, but a shift in the way that we teach.

Tags: Steve Hargadon, education, web 2.0, digital citizenship

On "The Future of the Newspaper"

Karl Fisch blogs about a conversation with John Temple from the Rocky Mountain news. Read the entire conversation here.

I found the entire blog interesting both as an educator seeing how another field is embracing change and as an environmentalist wondering how we can continue to use the quantity of trees necessary to print the daily news.

But, there is one line that caught my attention more than the others:

Embrace change find out where it takes you. It will make people smarter.

What a great statement. What are we afraid of learning? If I have learned so much in a year of embracing change, then imagine what it can offer to the students?

A second quote that makes me stop and think:

Think about: Is the value in the newspaper the paper, or is the value the independent, authoritative, verifiable reporting.

So to teach students to report and to look at more than one side of the argument is an important critical skill for life.


Tags: John_Temple, journalism, newspapers, Rocky_Mountain_News, education, Karl Fisch

Moving from Scratching to Digging

PJHiggins posts in Dig Deep or Scratch a Large Surface discusses depth vs. breadth. As a veteran teacher of 20 years, this has crossed my mind more than once. He discusses...

Depth v. Breadth

Those of us in public education are faced with a set of standards that we must teach our students within a certain time frame; in fact, we are legally bound to do so. But what does that mean if in the process of covering said standards, little time is given to deep inquiry or study of material in an academic manner?

Currently I am using project-based learning and moving to authentic learning. I do not have that down yet. I still feel driven by what I need to cover. Why?

Frankly, we now have a science test students must take in 11th grade. Even though I know those who do well will do well no matter what, I still feel we need to cover the material. How can I let that go?

And now that I am changing how I teach, parent pressure is becoming obvious. There are two teachers of Academic Biology. There is talk for both sides - parents who want their kids taught traditionally and those who want project-based. (I am not sure why I care - they have always wanted their students to have specific teachers in the past for other arguments).

I am no where near what we need to be and think this is a curricular issue that needs to be discussed first. We have never consulted with elementary teachers as well to align our curriculum better. I am encouraged that the administration has hinted at this already. Alignment to stop the overlap and repeats will help. De-emphasis on testing would be a bigger step.

He quotes Garr Reynolds of Presentation Zen:

Great scope certainly makes for an impressive syllabus and perhaps even a feeling of
accomplishment for those who pushed hard and got the highest marks. But how many of the students who got a ‘C’ or better will actually rememberwhat they studied a year later?

I for one do not remember much from High School. College perhaps a little more, but certainly not the breadth of material covered. In the past I was the teacher who said - look at all this work we did! What did that mean to the students? It is this last thought that continues to drive me to work towards the thought of core concepts and covering those thoroughly. How do you convince other teachers and driven parents and students to trust this idea vs. what has been?

Tags: presentationzen, depthvbreadth, education, curriculum

Dynamic student learning

Ryan Bretag's Aren’t Good Enough and Beth Knittle's Response...Aren't Good Enough is definite food for thought.


If our current use of web 2.0 tools still teacher contrived, is that really the best we can do?

When I started the wiki, it was mine and it was teacher controlled. Still some parts are clearly as they contain assignments, schedules, explanations. However, a portion of the wiki is living and dynamic in the individual student pages and the team pages. Their work on the collaboration of the team is ever growing.

As our district is looking at content management systems and potentially rolling out one-to-one computing, I wonder how my use of the wiki will change. Will I find something better? Will I like Moodle or Leopard or whatever comes this way? Will students find ownership in a vehicle that shows their learning and change over time?

What if every student had their own wiki? What if on the teachers wiki links to the students wikis exist? Can that be managed? Would the students take ownership and use it as a vehicle for learning? I would think yes, but we know that some students only do what they have to (and let's face it, they would do that no matter what we asked them to do). Over time, will more students appreciate use of a tool like this for their learning? Maybe more students would become motivated.

Students would definitely like a showcase of their experiences and learning. I actually asked my students informally. Some students said yes, very quickly and without thinking. Some students asked why would we want our own pages? Interesting.

So if not a wiki, what would it be? Is this a worthwhile pursuit? I think that use of the web 2.0 tools as we use them right now would be considered schooliness by Clay Burrell. Would a new vision transform learning to something different? Would this allow a shift to happen to more teachers?

Definite food for thought.

Tags: coursemanagement, learningspace, participatorymedia

What I would like to see in a professional learning community...

In a professional learning community, Dave Intlekofer discusses the professional development in the school he works. I would love to work in his school.

We here talk about sharing and more time. I for one, like this about his account of pd:

...Reflection/Integration Day, is another day that we could take advantage of much better. Reflecting on our work always has positive benefits for our future lessons and our students... Discussing the Essential Questions of our class for the week always gets us thinking about the bigger picture. It is so easy to get bogged down by the “daily grind” that we often merely focus on getting through the content, and forget the questions (learning objectives) that motivated the unit in the first place.

I love that. We should be moving towards more authentic instruction and realigning curriculum in order to not keep teaching the same things. This needs to be done in collaboration with one another and hard to achieve from 3 - 3:30 one day a month. This common time would allow us to get so much done. Very rarely is ther enough time to talk, plan, or share with colleagues.

...Professional Development Day, is my favorite. Each week, one of the five teachers is responsible for leading a lesson on an innovation, article, or any other subject that could benefit the team. The teacher leading the talk prepares any information in advance (often giving the others a short article to read on Wednesday) and leads the discussion. This has been a fantastic time of learning, brainstorming, and collaboration...

This would be great! A wonderful way to share something new or use an old idea in a new way. Some of these topics could be used for the Inservice days at the start of the school year and expanded into true learning experience. I think we should be accountable for our own learning. Sharing our learning promotes an atmosphere that is beneficial for all.

From maintaining our own learning through readings and blogs, to the sharing with other teachers in our school and district, we can use this as a great example of where to start. I would hope that as school reform sweeps through, that administration could find that teachers are able to be trusted with the best professional development to leave no child behind! A group of teachers creating a one size fits all professional development day really does not keep us on top of what is needed.

Technorati tags: Education,Teaching,School,Policy,Change,Leadership,teachers,Learning,Education Reform,improvement,NCLB,Reform,Instructional Technology,learning communities,school reform,change agent,school improvement

Businesses need to think quick. Should education?

Nancy Willard reports on her blog, about an article concerning the business world moving from a "broadcast model" to a "participatory model". Isn't this what we have been talking about in education as well?

Ryan Turner discusses the problems that companies face when doing things quickly:

1. "Jumping on to the latest and greatest tools."
2. "Not planning for the long haul."
3. "Just because everyone else is doing it..."
4. "How to tell if your successful"

I think I am guilty of all 4. However, I attempt #1 to try different technologies and keep the best (ex. wikis). Many do not make it to my students as I try them out first.

Though I always have an end in mind, it does not always go smoothly, but in the course of the project, many surprising learning opportunities present themselves.

I am really not a #3 kind of person. I think about it for awhile and then jump in when it seems viable and useful.

Assessment however confounds me as much of what we are doing is difficult to measure.

I am anxious to see how the business world as well as education manages the change from broadcast (lecture) to participatory (collaborative). I do know deep in my heart that we are on the right track and that change is necessary. I am not talking change in terms of using any and all technologies. I mean a change in the way we teach and have students think and participate. Technology used appropriately to that end will always be useful.

Or, as my husband says: "Choose the right tool for the job."

Tags: Nancy Willard, education