Technology In Education Online

Today’s theme has been my quest today. All sessions I’ve attended have been Web 2.0 related.  If I were highlight the day I’d say there are just an incredible amount of “cool” stuff coming out all of the time related to Web 2.0.  Just when I thought I was catching up to things, something new comes along.  The run down of sessions today:

Starting off the morning attending Alan November’s presentation: “Cultivating a World-class Work Ethic”.  If I were to reflect back on the session the key thing is that we must think of our learning from a multitude of perspectives.  If we study, for example American History, do we only source out of Google only from an American perspective?  Do we, with all of this technology available, open ourselves up to a more global perspective?  And if we restrict what we teach and our approach to how we teach  what are we preparing our students to become.  There are so many great things available to students today, especially with Web 2.0 tools that by placing all of these barriers in our educational approach we don’t create life-long learners.  We are leaving our students the job of teaching themselves outside of school. Students must and should have a say in their own education.

The remainder of the day I spent going to various Web 2.0 sessions.  I think when you talk about creativity and empowerment Web 2.0 is the future….for now. Who knows what the next big thing is coming around the corner!  This can be looked at in two different ways: 1) Why learn this stuff if it is going to be passe in no time, or; 2) This is some exciting stuff and it allows me to continue to bring in new ideas to students!  People were talking about YouTube, Digg, Blogs, Second Life, Habbo & Club Penguin, MySpace,  and Facebook to name a few. The whole idea is taking a bottom down approach rather than a top down approach towards education. Forget about memorization and regurgitation. Let’s move away from this focus on standardization especially since we can’t even get the “experts” to agree what these standards are and how we measure students’ progress.

The final thought of the day is this: If we talk about transforming our teaching methods with Web 2.0, we must think about how we teach ourselves.  If we are attending conferences, I think we need to develop conferences more towards being interactive and hands-on.  People may argue that with larger conferences this is an impossible task.  However, lets’ think about how a conference might work/ look differently. Attendees come to the conference, for those that don’t have a laptop, attendees are given a loaner system to take with them throughout the conference.  An attendee walks into a session, round tables are setup where people sit down, open up their laptop, and begin to walk through using these Web 2.0 tools.  How can we afford this?  I’ve seen vendors, such as Gateway, Dell, and HP, at the conference. Why not tap into their resources to provide the loaners?  The same with software. We have Apple and Microsoft at the conference. Why not have them participate in this process to provide the operating systems.

Actions speak louder than words! Why not re-invent our conferences and make them more like what we talk about when we talk about Web 2.0 philosophical approach to learning.  Let’s remove the chairs lined up in rows and create a a round table experience with a more collegial, interactive experience!

Continuing my random thoughts theme from my first FETC 2008 post, I’ll continue on.  I’m waiting the opening session to start and thought I’d put down my thinking from conversations today. So here they go:

I like wireless wireless access where ever I go.  I don’t like when I keep getting dropped off. It makes working while at the conference so much easier since a lot of my work these days is web-based. I just have to get over my need to plug-in for electricity. Can we have some type of solar or self generating power supply?

We need to move away from our fear factor.  Why do I say that? While sitting down for the opening session <strong>The Journal</strong> sitting on my chair listed on its’ cover “Handle With Care” In the wrong hands school PCs can be agents of improper even unlawful activity.  I’m not discounting the need for security, but when our focus is on this fear factor we lose track of the positives and focus on the negatives.  This is true of many of the Web 2.0 tools students use.   We must move away from this if we are to keep up with today’s students.  We can flourish using these creative, interactive, student driven tools.

Educational Leaders must be just that!  I had a great discussion with another presenter today discussing this issue.  How can we move away from NCLB and teaching to the test mentality if our educational leaders of our schools only perpetuate the status quo? If they only focus on test scores or padding their own resume then they have lost focus on what educational leaders should be.  If we are truly going to move towards a more constructivist approach to education, with technology integration being one of the many tools, then we must expect more.

Appearance is nothing. This piggy-backs off of #3.  If technology is about what looks good rather than how to better integrate technology then we are missing the boat.  Is it about show, how it appears to the community?  If this is true, then what are we to expect of our students?  As I walked around the vendor area I have a whole new outlook on how I assess what they are selling.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m one of the first ones to jump at the “cool” stuff. But when I take a step back and assess what value it has my perspective has changed dramatically.

Technology isn’t just about standards, security, test scores, cool devices and nice looking reports.  Again I refer to #4 above. I don’t dispel these things I just don’t think they are the end pieces.  If we purchase these types of programs that generate these great looking reports with graphs and charts are we simply presenting them to our BOE to make it look good?  I don’t mean to be a cynic, I’m just a little tired of how people bend and twist technology into being the pacifier of accountability.

And so ends my latest random thoughts for the day.

As I left the cold rainy weather of New Jersey, I was happy to arrive in Orlando and feel the warmth.  Often before a conference many random thoughts go through my mind, especially at a conference I’ve never attended.  What will the presentations be like, how will the conference go, will it be informative, what new things will I learn, and the list goes on. I even haven’t got to those random thoughts about my own presentation.  Being the last session of the conference I wonder what the turn out will be like.  Do you know you’ve made it regarding conference presentations when you move up the schedule? Time will tell.

The one thing I’m really happy about (OK, sometimes the little things make me happy) is being able to access the Internet from my hotel room for free!  There is nothing worst when you make reservations and the hotel states that they have “free” Internet service. Free! Yes, if you want to hang out in the lobby.  I like access directly from my room. I can stretch out, relax, and work in my own space.

I will be a correspondent for eSchool News during the conference and will include links to my reviews during the conference. Stay tune! Enough random thoughts for now!