Reflections

Three short months ago, I had no idea that there was a new "generation" of web applications that facilitated collaboration. Though I intellectually see the phenomenal creative potential of technology, I continue to be amazed at what it is making possible and I admire the imaginations of the people that are coming up with these ideas. Even more exciting is that with these tools, groups of individuals are bringing their energies and focus together - synergy.

I live in the transition between two generations. The elder is family, friends, and colleagues that take limited advantage of the internet; the younger is our children who spend more time viewing electronic messages than possibly anything else they do in the course of a day. Furthermore, they have all the facts and formulas at their fingertips. And I, of the elder, will be trying to teach students, of the younger, something that it seems they are more familiar with.

Wait, I do have experience to share. Collaboration, not always simple, improves with practice. I can provide students practice in doing nothing less with the ideas of others than they would do with their own. I can help them identify friendly environments. I can facilitate discrimination of helpful actions vs. actions that "pollute." I can provide practice with organization, following directions, reading.....and.....I can introduce new web applications. Although they may take those applications and run (farther than me), I can provide practice in making introductions and connections.

Having worked with different developmental stages and needs, whenever I think about computers in the classroom, I carry the concern that we are offering electronic tools to children at too young an age. I believe this is a appropriate question that must be sincerely entertained by innovators in the field. That having been said...

Experiencing Classroom 2.0 has given me a new set of powerful teaching tools that are already engaging my students and I in a broader level of awareness. Teaching and learning in a networked classroom opens the doors to the world. How exciting is that?!

Audience

All the world's a stage...

This morning at breakfast, a discussion on politics led to the observation that actors are often effective public speakers. Consider the actress on stage. Her key focal point is that she is loud enough and clear enough that the audience will be able to follow her message. She has a repertoire of delivery styles and will choose the style based upon the audience. There have been many rehearsals all, again, with the mission to clearly deliver her message.

Consider the word "delivery." There is a specific recipient in mind. Packages come to our doorstep. They are prepared according to the contents and how they will be received. They are not left out in the rain or by the side of the road. Their receipt is acknowledged.

Are teachers effective communicators? Do we look to our audience as conscientiously as the performer? Do we deliver our messages - messages prepared with the sole intent of being understood? Do we assure that our delivery has been received?

One secret to assuring that a delivery will be received is to send something that the recipient cares about. I hope this is the direction that technology in the classroom is going - toward lessons that engage the learners emotionally. The use of Web 2.0 applications provide infinite opportunities to give learners a sense of connection.

It's been said, "Technology is about connections." Indeed - of many kinds.

1-2-1 Solutions

A well orchestrated lesson involves the movements of expansion and contraction, imagining possibilities and focusing on answers, seeking connections and drawing conclusions. The lesson becomes organic, it breathes and the students breathe with it.

The computer screen - it creates a focal point, a narrowing down. When I compare options of getting each learner access to Web 2.0, the image of students concentrating their focus onto tiny little screens makes my muscles tighten. Give them big beautiful screens; let them appreciate their work in full view with multiple windows open one beside the other. Let them sit back and view their creations and take a deep breath. It is much easier to take a deep breath when sitting straight or sitting back, arms in an open gesture, than (watch somebody on their PDA) when hunching forward, head bowed, wrists together bringing the arms into a closed gesture.

Stay open. Keep breathing.

PodCasting

Here is a podcast designed to be played by students to help a substitute teacher run my B block class. The class is a "guided study hall" or basic study skills class:



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One Computer per Student

If there were one computer for every elementary school student, the computers would sit around most of the day while the students are in language arts practicing handwriting which develops capacities for thinking and learning (Graham, Vanderbilt University), in social studies listening to stories and developing interest in the other, in math working with manipulatives to train their logic, in science studying living organisms and environments, in P.E. developing physical capacities, in art developing capacities to work with form, in music developing harmony, at lunch and recess developing emotional capacities, and after school when healthy children are active outside in the sunlight and fresh air.

If there were one computer for every middle school student, the computers would sit around for extended periods of time while students are in language arts reading their favorite genre and developing critical thinking capacities, in social studies creating maps of the world developing spacial capacities, in math formulating multi-step solutions developing the capacity for problem solving, in science labs developing capacities of observation, in P.E. developing physical capacities, in art developing capacities to work with form, in music developing harmony, at lunch and recess developing emotional capacities, and after school when healthy children are active outside in the sunlight and fresh air.

If there were one computer for every high school student, the students would spend much time sitting around their computers in language arts reading and writing about their favorite genre using critical thinking skills, in social studies respectfully communicating with people around the world, in math tackling real-life problem solving, in science recording research and observations, and in the creating of graphic art and music. The challenge would be to have them step away from the computers at lunch and free time to develop social capacities, and after school to develop healthy physical bodies.

Addiction

When you leave a party where you have real friends to come home to your computer and sign on to a virtual world...

When you finish a day of skiing early to come home to your computer and sign on to a virtual world...

When you chose your computer over housecleaning, stacking firewood, and decorating for a holiday...

When you are a stable, strong adult making these choices....

I worry about our young people and the powerful attraction of the computer. What percentage of kids will be interacting with a screen instead of with family and friends during holiday gatherings? What capacities is this focus on technology creating? What is being lost as the will finds expression more and more through the keyboard?

Do we have a responsibility to assure that childrens' use of information-technology is balanced with activities to develop their physical bodies? Is there an age that is more appropriate than another to give these tools (like any other tools) to children?

Second Life

A web application that "provides an online society within a 3D world, where users can explore, build, socialize and participate in their own economy." (www.secondlife.com)

"Dad, I'm in an imaginary room on the computer talking with people from the course I'm taking. Can I call you back later?"

And thus I explained SecondLife to my dad, who phoned while I was participating in our session. I said to my boyfriend that in under five minutes, I could be having a conversation with someone from Europe as normal as the one we were having at the kitchen table. It is truly a phenomena. This was also my discovery of the International Society for Technology Education (iste), in which I see myself becoming more involved.

My mind is moving faster than my fingers when it comes to putting thoughts down about my experience in SecondLife and potential ideas I've been having. Danger Karen, this feels like it could become addictive.