I am not sure what to call it, housekeeping, digital clean up, or web maintenance. But whatever it is, it has taken up quite a bit of time and I am not yet done. In my role as K12 Technology Integration Specialist, I feel it is part of my responsibility to experiment with many of the web tools that are available for teachers. I believe I need to play with the tools to know what will be useful in different…
We are about half way through the blogging experiment. I met with the largest group of participants this morning, I meet with the rest by the end of next week. Pretty much everyone has started blogging. Many became so caught up in the reading that they forgot about posting their own reactions. When you first enter the world of blogs you can easily suffer information over load. This lead to a nice discussion on that new 21st century literacy skill,…
I have been thinking and reading a lot about blogging lately. What’s driving my thinking? Working with 27 new bloggers and discussing why we blog, the blogging process, why links are important and how to fill out your blog roll. Tim’s post at Assorted stuff is about the new blogging tools to be added to his district’s BlackBoard site. He’s concerned because these tools do not include RSS and are protected thus limiting the conversations and collaboration they could facilitate….
It has been a busy couple of weeks as it always is before a school vacation, there are many loose ends to tie up and holiday celebrations to attend. We complete our first round of the blogging workshops with a grand total of 27 participants. Everyone now has a bloglines and edublogs account. Their current assignment is to read, reflect and write. I am looking forward to what happens next, it is a great group of teachers and administrators and…
This Friday I am going to begin a series of blogging workshops entitled Blogging for Professional Development and Personal Growth. About 30 administrators and teachers have agreed to an 8 week blogging experience. I once heard it takes a month to develop a habit, so I figure 2 months for good measure. During the workshops participants will set up a bloglines account, create a blog on edublogs, and discuss the experience thru the blogs and in face-to-face meetings. They will…
I was having a discussion over lunch the other day with a colleague of mind Becky. She is a life long learner and making the move into education, specifically instructional/information technology. We were reflecting on the recent comments from some of the blogs we read and a new one I have recently come across, by Miguel Guhlin. The question was what is holding teachers back from integrating technology and using these tools in their teaching? We came up with a…
I work with some terrific teachers and am currently working closely with about 20 teachers doing various long term PD classes. They are very much like most of the teachers I work with every day. They see all the new tools, they see the possibilities of the tools, they see how it could impact their students learning. They get it. But they are overwhelmed by it all, the many options, the need to teach the state mandated curriculum, 21st century…