They're at it again! Blogs in Plain English

Another great video from Common Craft

Making time for R and D in Education - Response to blog post

I'm still a newbie to blogging so please humor me, but I think it's so amazing how reading a blog post can really make you take a close look at your own professional practices. Take this post from Jeff Utecht's blog The Thinking Stick. The title of his post is "Where is the R and D in Education?", which in fact came about due to a few comments from another of his posts. After reading it and some of the responses he received, it really got me thinking.

One of the first points that stood out was that teachers these days are taking fewer and fewer risks in their classrooms when it comes to trying new instructional ideas. These days our teachers have had to narrow their focus due to NCLB and all of the accountability that comes with that. I believe it has stifled creativity. They don't feel comfortable taking chances because of how it might impact them in the long run on the standardized test.

Having taught French for eight years before becoming an Educational Technologist, I didn't realize how good I actually had it. I was the only French teacher at both high schools where I taught, which allowed me a great deal of freedom. I didn't have to concern myself with keeping up with another teacher or wrestling with whether or not I should add in that extra culture lesson because the "other" class wouldn't receive the same material. I was also free to try just about any kind of instructional approach that I felt like. Yes, I fell on my face many times, but I was also learning right along side my students about which approaches best engaged them and had the greatest impact on their learning.

I think everyone in the field of educational technology would agree that we have to make time to take risks and for R&D. Technology evolves so quickly that if we don't stay on top of it, we'll be the ones left behind and thus leaving our teachers behind as well.

Reading Jeff's post had me reflecting on my coursework for my M.Ed in Educational Technology. At the time, I was incredibly impressed with the content of the courses and I learned so much, which I was immediately able to apply on the job. But now if those same courses were offered (and I finished four years ago this December) they would be seriously outdated.

I'm still amazed by what I'm learning is out there just through reading blogs. Out of touch doesn't begin to describe how I've felt from time to time. It's not that I've had my blinders on, but the time to stay abreast of everything is elusive. I spend the majority of my time supporting server-based software, answering technical related emails, and more for our sixteen schools instead of working more closely with teachers.

However, I've vowed that I need to set aside time in the future to ensure that I stay current with what's going on. Maybe that will be my New Year's Resolution? One specific block of time each week just to "play". That's how I got into using technology in the first place - playing. I suppose I need to take a lesson from my own kids and just sit and enjoy to remind myself why and how I became so engrossed in using technology in my teaching in the first place. Sounds like a plan to me!

Twittering

First it was educational technology blogs that I began following, and now I've entered the world of Twitter. I signed up not too long ago, but never truly delved into it until today. Never had the time really until now. However, I can see why it's addictive. I searched for people who had 'education' and 'technology' listed as their interests and added a few people to follow. I've already come across a few new blogs to follow now thanks to that, plus some great links to podcasting tutorials. I think I'm in trouble! Check out my Twitter badge that I found!! I uploaded this picture I took of a redheaded woodpecker to my Flickr account and used that as the background for my badge. Not sure if I'll keep it that way, but it's different than most I've seen so I thought I would give it a shot. Just in case I take it down or change it, here it below for posterity's sake.

follow cobannon at http://twitter.com
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GAETC Review: Tony Brewer - Blogs, Wikis, Podcasting: Tools of the 21st Century Classroom

I found that Tony Brewer was either pretty misinformed or ignorant of the ways wikis can work. He was fairly insistent that wikis could not be moderated nor the publishing of wikis controlled, which is entirely wrong. Some wikis require that the username and password be shared among users to post, some are created for open posting only, but there are others where the wiki can be established so only those who are members may publish and edit. I can't help but be disturbed by this misinformation given that he has built his career on presentations such as these. Blogs are so much more prevalent than wikis and even though the room wasn't packed, he managed to misinform everyone there and leave them with the impression that wikis aren't such a great tool.

Going on, he suggested the use of blogs could allow for multiple collaborators. How? Give the username and password to everyone who will be contributing. Isn't that a wiki? (Correction: Since my original post, I have discovered that you can have a multi-authored blog.) Why do so in a blog format when you could collaborate on a wiki? Each person can have their own login to use, and changes and additions can be tracked by the user.

He poses many questions about the validity of the information on the site and how you can't guarantee that it is free of bias. With an educationally focused wiki, this is not an issue. His allegiance appeared to be more aligned with Wikipedia than providing any other kinds of examples. He even showed Wikipedia and used it as an example.

Then he asked, based on the information he had given, which we would prefer. I was the only one who chose a wiki. Then he made some comment like, "How do you like being the only one?" Okay, I had to comment on that. I gave a short explanation of how I use wikis and that Wikispaces was a perfect medium to use with students and point-by-point contradicted his negative remarks about wikis. I was shocked to find that he had never even HEARD of Wikispaces. Then he said he would be careful because it ends in ".com". My hand went up again to relay that they have teacher pages which are free and add free to boot. Thankfully, another member of the audience brought up another suggestion of using WetPaint.

What really threw me was that when an audience member asked what you could use a wiki for other than having students create an encyclopedia. He was blank!! He solicited examples so my hand went up for the third time to relate the book study a group of 8th grade gifted students are doing with some of the faculty members in that school. I'd link to it, but it's private to protect the students, but I am very excited about what they are doing.

So, in short (too late right?), I guess he was rather ignorant about the use of wikis. But isn't it his job to completely inform himself before coming to a state conference and presenting on subjects such as this? Additionally, one of his links to educational wiki examples was a page produced on, drum roll please....Wikispaces!!

As David Warlick would say, just my 2 cents worth. So, in short if you are reading this and want to know more about wikis, you can go to my Diigo list of wiki examples.