Information Overloaded

I have never been one of those readers who savors every word and punctuation mark of books I read. Instead, I devour novels voraciously, gobble the ideas, and then reach for more. I attribute this type of reading to a Masters Degree in English Literature, where I was required to read an unrealistic amount of novels in a short amount of time. [Insert Apology to Ezra Pound Here].

I digress.

Lately I find myself slipping even further into that bleary-eyed, sloppy processing of the written word. I blame this, in part, on my Google Reader! I am reading, on average, 25 blogs per day. I skim and scan like the information vulture I am, for neat ideas to use in the classroom, new software to try, and various interesting things about the world (thanks Deputy Dog).

But I am here to tell you that sloppy reading can be dangerous!

Picture this. I am reading this blog post about Google Educator tools which immediately peeks my interest. So I click on the site where I discover that Google is promoting something called Google Lunar X Prize. My eyes skim over the first sentence or two….I process the following:

robotic rover
reality for your students
prize
stimulate interest in space and exploration
This looks sweet! Immediately, I copy the link and send it to the Technology teacher at one of our middle schools and note to him the nice prize. He has an interest in Mars Rover project with Lego that he does with his kids. I thought this would be perfect for him.

He sends me back a cute reply: “ after reading the “FINE PRINT” the only way we could pull this off is if NASA were teaching the Tech program and we had a launch tower by the shop door!”

So I immediately revisit the site….hehe….and read more carefully only to discover that the X Prize is for privately funded independent teams to send a robotic rover to the moon! The prize is 30 million dollars! Gee Mr. T, who says we can’t build a Rover and launch it in Oromocto! Sheesh! I do have to admit a touch of embarrassment.

So, in the light of all this, I have made a new “New Year’s Resolution”:

I am slowing down; I am becoming one with the blog post. I will make a concerted effort to abstain from devouring everything my greedy little eyes see.

Otherwise, I am going to be eating crow!

If you noticed that my blog looks different, its the badge on the right that states” Students 2.o, The Silent Majority Speaks Up”. You’re going to love this.

What is this, you ask? Well, a group of student bloggers will be creating a “student-centered edublogosphere” where they extend insights and reflections on education. The blog is called Students 2.o. One of my favorite bloggers, Arthus, who writes a blog called “Newly Ancient” will be contributing.

A few months ago I stumbled on this blog and have been reading it faithfully ever since. I was so impressed with Arthus’ posts, that I went back and read every single one of them. They are well written and have given me much food for thought. My favorite entry is “Pensieve Post” where Arthus talks about bringing his laptop to class. Click here to read it.

I can’t wait to see what students are saying about all this shift in education and learning! Rock on Students 2.o!

I have found an excellent document written by a teacher in the US by the name of Mr. Ben Wilkoff entitled, “101 Tools and Resources For Authentic Learning Environments.”

At a first glance, I was immediately struck by all the great sites and tools listed for teaching and learning. We have already been using some of the resources listed here in our own District: things like Skype, Audacity, Wikispaces, Teachertube and Smartboard Applications, to name a few.

However, the best part of the document, for me, was found on page 3, when Mr. Wilkoff writes about an authentic learning environment:

An authentic learning environment is anywhere that asks students to create products and learning processes with real purpose and real audience. Purposes outside of getting a grade and pleasing the teacher increase ownership of learning. This means that teachers should create activities…based upon the idea that all learning can and should last longer than the course. (I love that last line).

Making learning last beyond the scope of the course! That is what teaching is all about! It’s not about the technology at all. He goes on to explain how he has differentiated between “Tools” and “Resources”. “Tools are not something that challenge thinking. It is something to use within the authentic environment, but it cannot become the reason to do an assignment.”

See, he’s right. We can have all the tools and equipment we want in classroom, but authentic learning is not going to occur merely with these things alone. Good lessons have always been about so much more than that.

Resources [he continues] are places you keep coming back to because there is frequently updated content. They are works that challenge you to think differently and teach differently. They are places that ask you for contribution to the conversation.

In his “Resources” section, he lists ePals, School 2.o, Ted, and various blogs, such as David Warlick’s 2Cents Worth, his own “Discourse about Discourse”, and Vicki Davis’ Cool Cat Teacher. Things that you read and think about, and revise your own methods because of it……

So much good stuff. Thanks Ben! This will Overload my brain for many weeks to come.

So I am organizing my pictures in Flickr  (photo sharing site) and come across this feature where I can send my pictures directly to the blog. It took me about 2 minutes to set up and now I am posting this lovely cloud picture that I took this summer to see if I works.

How could this impact teaching and blogging in the classroom? Well, now I’m going to have to think about that one….