Well, so much for good intentions! It’s been 3 months since my last blog post. I have been immersed in learning a new faculty, a new job, and more technical details about computer hardware than I ever wanted to know! We’ve had an equipment roll-out which has been a mixed blessing. Teachers have received laptops and projectors. SMART boards are on the way at some point. Many teachers are very excited about the new equipment, but in some cases it’s sitting in the corner collecting dust. My challenge now is to coach teachers about using the equipment to enhance instruction instead of just as an organizational/clerical tool.
One thing that I feel good about is that I have at least been working a little on my own personal learning. I have watched about a fourth of the presentations from the 2007 K12 Online Conference. Great stuff!! Shawn Nutting’s Creating a Paradigm Shift in Technology really spoke to me because I feel like that’s my mission as a TIS…to create a paradigm shift at my school. Putting the Pedagogy into the Tools by Anne Davis is a fantastic collection of Web 2.0 resources. I will be a repeat visitor to her wiki. In an effort to be more accountable for our own professional growth, my friend Ron and I have made a commitment to blog at least twice a week. I have successfully met the first deadline!
Cool Tool:
Trailfire: This social bookmarking tool allows you to string together a trail of websites and post comments on each one. April Chamberlain did a great K12 presentation about Trailfire using this tool.
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November 18th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Congratulations for meeting your deadline. When I was reading your post I thought about the post that Jeff Utecht did where he talked about getting teachers to the point where the technology becomes embedded instead of being this outside thing that they need to try and work in to their teaching and the students’ learning. I think you will do a great job inspiring those teachers to see the benefits of using the technology.