It’s less than 2 weeks until I officially begin my new job as a technology integration specialist. I’ll be at a new school with a whole new faculty to get to know. I have so many questions! How can I be effective in leading and assisting my teachers in the use of technology? What are the most important things I need to teach them? There are so many great technology tools available for the classroom. Web 2.0 has been embraced by a few people in my district, but it’s still a mystery to most. Where do I begin?
I’ve been catching up on my blog reading, looking for some answers. I was reading a Thinking Stick entry that contained Skype notes of a NECC session by Will Richardson. One of Jeff’s comments was “Learning is about conversations, not tools.” A simple statement, but so profound! That was exactly what I needed to read and where I need to begin…conversations. Building the relationships and making connections will be the root of any kind of growth I might be able to encourage.
George Siemens, author of the connectivism theory, offered another take on tools in his blog entry entitled, “It’s not about tools. It’s about change.” He questions whether those of us in education who are caught up in Web 2.0 are using the right approach. “We are at a point of transition - will our tools be absorbed by education systems, and then become part of the problem? Or do our tools result in real change? … Will the change come only from conference-tour academics that adopt current trends and present them without passion for change to an audience seeking to hear what’s new in tools, but not what’s new in process, knowledge exchange or society? I’m concerned that the current tone of talk about read/write web tools in the conference circuit is one of shoring up an approach to teaching and learning that is fundamentally at odds with how people learn and interact.”
People learn by making connections. That’s why “making connections” (text-to-text, text-to-self, or text-to-world) is such a valuable strategy in literacy instruction. Bringing about change in the educational realm won’t happen because of the next best tool. It will be a result of teachers making connections between the curriculum, their personal lives, and the digital lives of their students. Maybe that’s where I need to begin…with conversations and connections, not tools.
That being said, I still love cool tools! Check these out:
Shelfari: This site is connected with Amazon. It allows you to set up an online bookshelf of the books you’re reading, and if you want, you can interact with others who have read the same books. I have posted a shelf of my summer reads.
wikiHow: We’re all familiar with wikipedia. Now there’s a collaborative online how-to manual! Who knew? I found it by doing a Google search on how to use trackback.
Technorati: thinkingstick, connectivism, Siemens, cooltools, learning
