Thinking About Learning

Last week I had the opportunity to attend a SMARTboard Users Group in Charleston. There were over 100 people there, teachers, technology integration specialists, media specialists, and district level personnel. Prior instructions had been provided to bring a SMART Notebook lesson(s) to share with the group. After a large group introductory session, participants were divided up into small groups, about 15 participants each, based on self-determined user ability. In our small groups a facilitator shared some new information from SMART Tech, introduced us to some new tools, and then opened to floor for participants to share the lessons they had brought. At the end we were able to save a copy of all the shared lessons to a flash drive to take with us.

This was one of the best professional development events I’ve ever attended! Other educators are the best resource for teachers. We’ve all known that for years. When I attend a conference, I avoid sessions conducted by vendors and seek out sessions led by people in the trenches. So I’m asking, “How can we capitalize one all the experience that surrounds us, but seems inaccessible?”

Too often teachers feel isolated behind a closed door, struggling to create and use meaningful instructional materials in the midst of a day already packed with too many responsibilities. Collaboration is a buzz-word in education today, but when do teachers really have time to collaborate? Even when a monthly afternoon is set aside strictly for that purpose, other issues beg for the time.

The SMARTboard users group really got me thinking about the need for teachers to have a forum for an online professional learning team. Unfortunately, teachers who are trying to embed the use of technology as an instructional methodology within the curriculum are still in the minority. It’s easy to feel isolated when your beliefs about pedagogy are not shared by those around you. It only makes sense that an online professional social network community could be a possible solution for a more intentional approach for collaboration and continued professional growth among like-minded educators. I believe that educators have only begun to taste the value of social networking Web 2.0 tools. I’ll be seeking others to join this quest!

Technorati: smartboard collaboration PLT usergroups

As the Internet becomes increasingly more of an instructional tool in the classroom, school districts are facing the important question of how much open access students should be allowed to the Internet.  Controlling the content of text in the classroom has been a controversial topic for years.  School boards have had bitter arguments over the banning of literature with mature content, health curriculum materials with varying perspectives of sexuality, and the more recent issue of whether or not to include the theory of Intelligent Design in science curriculums. 

Internet filters are a bane to educators.  It is so frustrating to try to access an excellent instructional website and find it blocked.  Filters seem to weed out as many good sites as inappropriate ones.  Something that is here today may well be gone tomorrow.  Internet censorship is a two-edged sword.  Adults have a responsibility to protect the innocence of childhood which is a why a rating system was developed for movies and video games.  Schools must provide a healthy, safe learning environment for students, and that necessarily includes limiting exposure to inappropriate content.  At the same time we have a huge responsibility to teach our students to be responsible digital citizens.  Many of them digitally roam free at home with no guidance about making wise choices related to Internet usage.  Digital citizenship may be one of the most compelling tasks facing educators today.  As the world becomes more digitized everyday, our students need to develop the higher level thinking skills needed for information literacy and decision-making.  How can they develop these skills without some opportunity to put them into practice in a safe, supervised setting?