Attempting an audio post. Listen at your own risk.

I had an hour and a half drive home last night without the benefit of a carpool buddy. It was late, I was tired, and I decided to "audio blog" my thoughts. Sorry to inflict, but if I'm going to do it, I might as well do it here. :) This may be a bit of a rehash of some of the conversations during our strand time, but this is what happens when my brain reflects on the day (and posts without substantive editing). Part 2 to follow eventually.

Crawl . . . Walk . . . Run

That's how most of us learn . . . one step at a time and all in our own way. That's what we know as educators about our students, and that's what we need to remember while interacting with our peers. If you haven't already viewed the YouTube video on the new technology, "The Book," please do because it is a great reminder of where we all once were. It is so exciting to learn when you feel good about it.

Our Fearless Leader

Meet our Fearless Leader Tim. Uber Tim. The man, the myth, the soon to be legend.

Link to our FAQ for Tech Questions at MSAD48

Here is our FAQ for MSAD48

http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dgkxbfp9_35g7sngn&hl=en

Interest

In a technological world were everything happens so fast, it is hard to remember that not all things change as fast as we would like them to. Convincing adults to change, or for that matter any human, change is difficult. We are who we are. It is going to take a great deal of time to completely change how instructors promote and use technology.
Finding what interests instructors have and using those interests to introduce change is an important technique to incorporate when trying to promote technology use in the classroom.
This takes time and patience.
One thing to remember not to do is to make any learner feel like they are inferior by being impatient with their lack of technology knowledge.

Hooks to Hand Holding

I sat back and listened a lot to the hand holding discussion and it occurred to me that we seem to be sharply divided along gender lines. The women in the group seemed to be more apt to extend the handholding and focus on relationship building. This is where I fall - I know that my best skills as an educator are those that allow me to read people's comfort levels, frustation levels, and be able to not be sucked into them. It may take me a long time before they are comfortable setting off on their own - but that comfort level is worth all of the time it took to get there.

Not being a man, I can only speculate on this next part. Please don't take offense! Personal independance seems to be valued over face to face relationships when it comes to tech learning. They are willing to sit with people but more quickly feel that the onus of responsibility is with the learner, not the trainer.

I am curious...who launches from the nest more quickly? Is it those who have a face to face person or a boot? Or is that gender specific too?

Time is $ !!!!!

Keith's point was fantastic!!! Reward faculty that are achieving/complying with tech goals in your school, perhaps not w/money but time off from "in service" work; require those that are not meeting the standard to attend...this is good motivation for some to get on board at our school.

Helping elementary teachers use technology...

Just a thought...In our district we made a MacAttax folder on our First Class system. Teachers see the folder everyday because they all have to open up their email. The majority of staff open up the posts in the folder. Some want to read what helpful hints are listed and some open it up simply because they do not like the red flag starring at them. Whatever the reason, they are opening the folder and they know that the resource is there. This works very well, but I am well aware that there is a vast difference between elementary school staff and middle/high school staff.

Moodle Sucess!

I used Moodle for the first time this past school year with great success! It was a super tool for organizing student work, allowed students to work in an environment that they enjoy and were comfortable with, and created a two-way conduit for students learning new tech skills and me, the teacher, proved open to learning from the students' knowledge of all things techie as well.
Feel free to check out my classroom @:
www.bapstmoodle.com
Find the class under my name, Bridget Robbins, click on 'Español II', and login as a guest...

Administrative Skills

What are the "best practices" in terms of managing student blogs? Helpful hints and comments towards being a better administrator of student blogging?

Issac Asimov's "The Fun They Had"

Have I mentioned that I have a non-gender specific crush on Google?







Issac Asimov's "The Fun They Had"

Adopting NETS Standards

One of the best actions our school took this year in terms of moving towards 21st century technology skills, was to adopt the NETS standards. Our tech coordinator works on a departmental level to implement and develop common assessments/projects. As well, these departmental meetings allow for the tech coordinator to ascertain what individual teachers need in terms of training/equipment.
www.iste.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=NETS

Building Community is a two way street

One of the things that I've grown to appreciate but not necessarily personally internalize, is the necessity for EVERYONE in a community to contribute. I know this sounds silly, but in my online involvement with places like Classroom2.0 or EdTechTalk or even the blogging community I feel like I have very little to contribute. Who could possibly want to hear what I have to say? Do my 2-cents matter? Sometimes this keeps me from writing that blog response to someone else's post - and that diminishes the dialog, even if no one ever goes to my blog to see it. I follow some teachers that are as novice in this tech thing as I am, and I love reading their classroom adventures, triumphs and outright failures -and how they are planning to pick up and move forward anyhow. I need to get over my own sense of boundaries and privacy to the point where I feel comfortable jumping in with my stories, perspectives and philosophical musings. I need to be a little less paranoid about who might take my ideas the wrong way and be confident I can state things clearly enough so most people can "get" what I mean.

Thankfully the community is patient. I can keep going to the well for buckets of information and it's ok right now to just put back with the occasional eyedropper full of thoughts. The generosity of the online community of teachers, administrators, geeks and philosophers continues to buoy my spirits and keep me moving forward. I hope everyone in this group gets to a point where they feel they are a part of the group, a part of the conversation, and contribute to the well from which we all draw.