Information Overloaded

Well, I’m back and blogging again after a wonderful and busy start.  I could not resist opening this term of blogging with a website that I think is absolutely brilliant called Yearbook Yourself.

You upload a picture of yourself, move it around, and the site gives  you images of yourself over the various years.

I especially love the Stepford Wives shot of me!  Try it out.  I think students would love it too!

Or what about me in 1980?  This one kills me!!

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.

I recently attended the technology conference in Maine (ACTEM) and went to a really great session given by Jim Moulton called “Jim’s Best of the Web“. He mentioned a site that contains two words I absolutely love….free, and audiobooks.

The site is Librevox.org and it is a volunteer effort to create audiobooks of every work that exists in the public domain. When you click on a book, the reader tells you their name, where they live, and the date they did the recording. I could see this as being a great opportunity for students to practice their oral reading skills by participating as well.

Of course, being an English Major, I was especially pleased to see a few of my favorites:

The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri

Various William Blake Poems

Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

Well, I guess I know what I’ll be doing this weekend! I can’t believe I paid 14 bucks through Audible for some of these!