Small turn out March 1st for what turned out to be a good workshop, in spite of some technical difficulties. The entire network at our school had two complete outages, due to a major problem at Verizon. We had Jim Weinzloff from November Learning. For those of you who have had the pleasure of Alan November as presenter you are familiar with how ” big” he can be in his thinking, and his presentation style. He is an idea man as he stated last year at the conclusion of BLC 07.

This year Alan spent several fruitful Saturdays with about a third of our teachers .  Jim’s style was smaller, but very warm, friendly, and informative. He did some nice work with Google Maps ( which has some cool new features), Sketchup and pod-casting. Our staff really seemed to “get it” that morning. I don’t know if it is because they have been exposed to more of this stuff thanks to a literacy grant from SI Foundation which has footed the bill for this high quality Pd this year, but our teachers followed him with good understanding, and a few of them applied what they learned in their classes the next week.

As I said we had Alan come to our school several times this year, and I have to admit we are seeing small  shifts, mainly in language. Our staff has added the terms blog, podcast, google apps to their professional vocabulary. A portion of them are blogging and many are using del.icio.us and skype at least in their personal lives, and about a third of our staff has been introduced to and use Google apps (some have created their own Google search engines, and use Google docs as a collaborative word processor).

Now as pessimistic as I can be, and have been in the past, I admit it is beginning to sink in and there are small measurable changes.

A few years back when I started blogging coming back from my first BLC conference, filled with piss and vinegar, I also came back speaking a slightly different language then my colleagues. Now many of them are at least familiar with some of the terms and tools like Jing, and pod-casting software such as Audacity and Garageband( we are a Mac environment for the most part)So all and all, a good start.

As an aside, I had the good fortune to be in attendance with Will Rich Yesterday at District 75’s main digs, and he was beyond wonderful. He reminded me resolutely that this is about learning networks, not just cool tools. Connections that make you grow professionally, and personally, often delivered with amazing immediacy. (Case in point MIT Opencourseware,all of MIT’s courses are now available online with video, all kinds of supports for FREE!)Which gives me some direction for next year. Our staff has begun to tentatively sip the from the Cool-tool Koo-laid. But that is just the first step, now the challenge is greater. How can we get them to see that building online learning networks of their own will empower them beyond their imagination? I will blog about Will Rich in the next few days.

So we are crawling forward towards the 21st Century.

I am trying to get my tech-sensitive assistant principal to blog. No he does not break out in red blotches when near computers. (Well perhaps Windows platform PCs)

Tech-sensitive: meaning to have an understanding and sensitivity to the fact that technology in education is no longer about infusing tech into a curriculum that is a separate entity. Indeed tech (what a horrible word) is the curriculum. The two are inseparable the way books were to tribal knowledge, oral history, and religious thought after Johann Gutenberg in 1440 started fooling around with movable type and ink.

I have some good ideas but they may not be enough to convince him. The main reason I want him to blog is we bought as a school, November blogs for September and I think the only way I am going to move the initiative forward is to get him to blog, as a leader, as a teacher. He is what many people in the NYC DOE are not, consumed with ideas about teaching kids. He is not consumed with watching the Educational Data-driven Indy 500 sponsored by NCLB, the Everyday Math Company and the Reading First people. Not that he doesn’t know everything about our school numbers and data, he does. He knows how to play that game; he just is not consumed by it.

So why do I want him to blog?

Reason 1. He will inspire others. Well, people honestly respect him, I do too. If he blogs he will move others to take blogging seriously. He will move communication off the bulletin boards and memos that no one except a few kids and teachers see, to the world.

Reason 2. Audience. I want him to blog because of audience. I think Ewan McIntosh says it best when he says, “the average audience for student work is one (two for a conscientious student who bothers to read their own work). ”

Now we have the possibility of hundreds, thousands, to view student work and teacher thought. Amazing.

We were talking about it while we watched an army of movers on the last day of summer school, move one buildings belongings to another and the reverse for September start up. (Don’t ask but suffice it to say our Autism spectrum classes are moving into our smaller building, and our standard assessment classes into the main building) Not a decision that he made, or my principal even. (Who wants to worry about setting up 25 classrooms the first days of school, instead of thinking about the direction the school is taking?) These were their marching orders from NYC DOE. This is one of the main things administrators do, try to respond to the ever-changing demands made by a pretty faceless and heartless bureaucracy. Then do damage control so as to not completely destroy the educational experience for the kids and teachers.

Anyway he said quite seriously, I would have to write. Meaning he rarely gets time to go to the bathroom with the demands of the job now, how could he possibly make time to write thoughtfully about his job or education. Bingo. Here is one of the best reasons to blog. It makes you stop and think about what you are doing as a teacher, as a leader, as a student. Of course this ties into the father of education’s most famous line, (no not John Dewey) Socrates,(” the unexamined life is not worth living”)

Reason 3. Blog for self reflection and record. Know where you have been, and what you thought while you were there, this will give you a better idea of where you want to go.

Not that I meant that as a slam on John Dewey.

Just this morning over at 21st Century Collaborative there was a great quote by Dewey that indirectly contains some reasons to blog.

The quote was:

“”The world is moving at a tremendous rate. Going no one knows where. We must prepare our children, not for the world of the past. Not for our world. But for their world. The world of the future.” Learning by doing. Learning through real and authentic experiences. ”

Add the words global and connected to the lyrics and it sounds like the song Will Rich is forever singing rather well over at Weblogged, on behalf of blogging and other social media, or an article at Edutopia, Not something over 75 years ago about how education must reinvent itself to meet the demands of a world that was about to explode politically and economically after we all finished killing each other across the globe in WWII.

But listen to Dewey’s words: “The world is moving at a tremendous rate”. Certainly true today, we have to prepare for a world that does not exist, and don’t let anyone tell you they know exactly what that world will look like, because if they do they probably want to sell you a bridge in Brooklyn.

If anything has changed in our world at a tremendous rate it is connected communication. I mean the phone company as we know it can be effectively put out of business and is hanging on by redefining it self as an Internet provider and cable TV. So blogging and podcasting (if you have an ipod and italk that is a piece of cake) is the natural foot forward in education. Not because I know that our students will use blogs and pod-casting in their careers I am not making that claim. (I have no bridge to sell). But because the logical step forward for education is in the area of globally connected communication.

Dewey says we should learn by doing, authentic experience. Blogs are real. Blogs may elect our next president (or more importantly keep track of what Anna Nicole Smith’s baby is doing.) Bringing blogs into the classroom and the administrators’ office makes those experiences more “real” or “authentic”. Well perhaps that is a stretch.

I taught for 20 years before blogged. (Yes I am old, a little fat too) I used Project Based Learning for 15 of those years and did some terrific things but so much of that experience is lost. There is no publication of student work, or my thoughts as my students conquered ; the Civil War, Separatists in Holland” Dian Fossey, Mexico, D-Day and The Battle of the Bulge” Civil Rights, Anne Frank, Hiroshima, Child Labor, The life of bats, Zoos, The Founding Fathers etc… I could go on with this list of titles. But that is all that remains, titles that really tell me nothing. Even if I were a pack rat, (I throw everything out and I never taught the same thing twice in 20 years) the only person that would have seen what we had accomplished would be me.

Reason 4.Blog to share what you do and know.

Blogs also are a kind of progress report. A really fertile progress report that is living and can have interactive relationships. Blogs indeed could meet the goal of Data-driven education or what I like to call Educational Indy 500 . You have a real record with writing, photographs, self-reflection, podcasts maybe even videos of progress or lack of a student or a whole class. You also have teacher review and peer review of what has been created and presented. Real reflection. Not a number 1-4 that may tell you more about whether the child or the teacher was in a good mood on the day of the test rather than what kind of a job the teacher did, or how much the child has progressed. With a blog as opposed to a one dimensional score 1-4 , you have a picture of what and how the teacher taught, what the child did and thought. Very fertile stuff. You want an initiative that will give your real accountability Al Klein? Go for real public transparency with the classroom, instead of reading first how about blogging first? Take heart educational companies I am sure you can make fortune on this one too.

So, Reasons 4 &5 Accountability and public transparency of a public agency.

Any way I want my A.P. to blog. He is good at his job and I think it will only make him better. If you have any thing to add please do. Why should he blog? Tell me what you think.
[BloggingEducation]
[21stCenturyLearningskills]
[JohnDewey]

On this hot summer day in my special education elementary school I had a number of discussions with my students during lunch. Two of them in the 4th grade wanted to send pictures from one PSP to another. I don’t know if it can be done, at least not in my school because they can’t connect with our wifi. Password protected. God forbid the NYC DOE gave connection away for free. But they wanted to know how to get their Psp’s to ” talk ” to each other.

It reminded me of a conversation I had with a a fourth grader on a cold day this winter, he was telling me all about the Iphone this had to be January or December, and how he wants one. He knew it was going to be like the touch screen Imac in our lab. I was fascinated and not surprised. He actually said one day all computers will be phones. I had a little ahaa moment . This is their langauage. They speak it with ease. Technology is for them first nature.

I even think they hide their knowledge to an extent becasue they are not speaking to one of their own . It reminds me of growing up in the seventies and having a large arsenal of knowledge about certain rock performers in my case the Who, Frank Zappa, Clapton, Pink Floyd, Jimmy Hendrix, Muddy Waters, ect..

I would never have spoken openly with my teachers about my musical tastes because, well I was passionate about music. I knew my teachers would not understand, ” they did not speak my language and they were not “one of us”.

The astonishing thing is that criteria or the special knowlege that my inner city special education kids use to define or designate someone as “one of them” is not the knowlege of Rappers or Wrestlers like it was 5 years ago, but knowledge of Myspace, blogs, other social networks, Youtube, or how to pick up the local wifi to connect your PsP’s.

In direct contrast to my student”s mastery of this  specialized knowlege many of the teachers (and some of the administrators ) I work lack rudimentary tech knowlege , and have no desire or plan to change this fact anytime soon.

Amazing, I write grants that talk about “ 21st century learning skills” and my students need for instruction, curriuclum aligned with, and instructors prepared to impart these skills to them, and if you give me this money we will create students prepared for the present/future blah blah blah .

But it is a lie.

My students are getting the experience to create social networks, collaborate with others who do not share their physical space, utilize visual media to commuicate, ect…. . They are somewhat ready for the 21st century. They have some of the “specilized knowlege” they will need to traverse the 21st century. The thing is they are not acquiring any of this “special knowlege ” in their classrooms. Indeed this special knowledge these students have is making school and the boredom of teacher’s chalk and talk completely irrelevant to the students who fill the seats in their classrooms.

How do I change that? How can I get teachers to see that things have changed and the way they are teaching is not good enough or ok anymore? Don’t worry I don’t expect the answer, but it is a hell of a question.

I don’t really watch T.V. very often. Last night I saw two pieces that made me reflect on the state of censorship in the U.S., controlling content that is fed to kids. I conclude perhaps I should watch T.V. more often.
“The people who are reacting to that word are not reading the book as a whole,” she said. That’s what censors do — they pick out words and don’t look at the total merit of the book.”

That is a quote from a NY Times articles about a book “The Higher Power of Lucky,” by Susan Patron, this year’s winner of the Newbery Medal. The book uses the word “scrotum” on the first page. Seems many Librarians across the country have decided that maybe another word, maybe lets say the word “pee pee” would have been more appropriate for 8 or 9 year olds so they are banning the book across the country. This piece was on the news.

OK so I flip the channel to a wonderful show Independent Lens and they are discussing the politics/sexism/homophobia of hip-hop music. The filmmaker Byron Hurt did a riveting piece on the state of the most popular music in the land, you know the music all the white and yes even some “black” kids love. (Hip-Hop).

Hurt starts the documentary by saying he loves Hip Hop and then deconstructs Hip Hop’s deconstruction devolving over the years to a violent, misogynist, homophobic cultural phenomenon.“The more I grew and the more I learned about sexism and violence and homophobia, the more those lyrics became unacceptable to me,” he says. “And I began to become more conflicted about the music that I loved.”  This young man created a wonderful hop-ummentary (for those of us old enough remember the use of the made up word rockumentary) HIP-HOP: Beyond Beats and Rhymes ,that effectively takes on the issues of hyper-masculinity, sexism, violence and homophobia in today’s hip-hop culture.

The film examines some of Hip-Hop’s biggest sellers, saying and acting out some pretty wild stuff.
• Nelly using the crevice of a woman’s backside during a video to swipe his credit card
• 50 cent in all his slicked armed glory seeming to declare himself a target and an assassin, a force to be reckoned with, and not for the emancipation of a black man, but for cash-money and lots of it.
• The depiction of women as less than objects, kind of like the bling the rappers wear with casual disregard on their necks, larger than life, plentiful, glitzy, naked and extreme, but never really objects of beauty.
• women are repeatedly referred defined as whores, (I refuse to spell it hoe) and bitches. In one particularly memorable segment one of the artists sings about “getting his rape on”.

While I can’t recall the last time I used the word scrotum or for that matter pee pee in class with my 9, 10, 11, or even 12 year olds (I also don’t use the word Bitches or whore) I know that “all” my kids have seen these videos and by the way, they love this stuff. Admittedly I teach poor inner city kids, but as the film stated their audience is largely white and under 16. So that includes lots of kids out of the “inner-city” and probably many kids who will not thanks to some diligent librarians be reading the word Scrotum on the first page of “The Higher Power of Lucky”.

I am not a fan of censorship. Like the republicans, I usually am opposed to intrusive measures of government that dictate or control culture (that was sarcasm for those who don’t pick up on it), but it seems to me we are censoring the wrong things as a teachers. While it would be accurate to say I don’t want my 9 year olds listening to some oiled, muscular fool rapping about getting his “rape on “, it would be equally accurate to say that as a citizen of this country I don’t want anyone to have the power to stop him.
You see it is more complex  and Hurt’s film makes the point clearly as he speaks to many rappers including the legendary Chuck D who plainly states “if you want to get signed to any recording deal, there is a prescriptive narrow element to what is salable and it does not include, socially thoughtful or reflective rap, like Fight the Power.”
My point is we are trying to control things we cannot, at least not through censorship.

Now why did I bother writing this post? I mean I mainly talk, and sometimes (whine) about edtech stuff in the classroom. This is a little off the mark from that.Well, censorship, plain and simple. It is not that it is always wrong, (though I am pretty opposed to it having read and understood the first amendment), it is just that when it comes to profit, it is never effective or applied. You can’t censor Nelly or Snoop Dog because they are too profitable. So maybe you can keep your kids from reading the word scrotum, but if they flip on BET or MTV well they will hear and see things more potent than the innocuous word scrotum.
Now for the tie in if thiere is one, to how this relates to the attempted ban on social-software in the classroom. Maybe you can ban blogs/social-software in schools but kids live outside the classroom most of the time. They will be exposed. They will be in chat rooms and on myspace/youtube/googglevideo/MTV whether you like it or not. Better to start thoughtful discussions (with kids) about how culture defines us, about just what is some rapper is saying, while he cradles his glock, or refers to some scantily clad women as a bitch, we better start talking about potential predators on the web, and a whole host of things that are dangerous and uncomfortable.

Perhaps it is time we talk to our kids rather than to pretend these things do not exist. Our approach to so many things in the classroom that are unplesant and controversial has been to block them out. This is certainly true of  violent rap music and it is still a pretty potent cultural influence on young kids whether we discuss it in class or not. Lets stop blocking and start talking with and to our kids, or we could just let them figure it out for themselves, either way they will be exposed.

A post by Chris Lehman was referenced by Rob Mancabelli at his blog which discusses how much control is necessary for schools to I suppose maintain, well the levels of control and safety they now enjoy.

Wow, is not this an old debate?

(Above a piecie of revolutionary technloogy that transformed society)

I think this gets to the heart of the matter of an age old dilemma in public education, what is public educations ultimate concern in a capitalist democracy? Creating controllable citizens that will help the social-political mechanism continue to function, or creating free thinkers who may challenge in disruptive ways the power structure albeit make great advances for society?

Since this is black history month lets take a look at the history of the evolution of equality in Black America in light of educational controls. Well to begin African – American’s were denied access to Gutenberg’s momentous technological invention of the 15th century, (movable type) the book.

This amazing piece of technology had the ability to connect people, and their thoughts managing knowledge in a new a profoundly efficient way. No wonder It was illegal to teach slaves to utilize this piece of technology. No reading or writing.

Then of course came segregation and the “separate but equal folly” which while a step up from no educaton still proved to be a powerful way to control knowlege and just what race would would have it.

I always find it fascinating how truly ” careful and fearful” we are that free thinking may one day enter into k-12 education.

Education and control, how much? Who owns knowledge? It reminds me of something an uncle of mine would always say.

I had an Italian uncle who was a piano maker. Uncle Dan (Cortaza) he was not much fun. He was pretty ancient when I was a kid, made wine, fought in World War I for Italy, and did not smile that much. One thing that I always remember was what he said every time I visited him without fail and in a commanding voice laced with a thick Italian accent ” Meridith the one thing no one can take from you is your knowledge, it the only thing you ever really own and it is the most powerful weapon. Read, and learn it is all you have and it may save your life” Dower words to say to a 7 year old. They however stuck with me my whole life. Uncle Dan taught me that knowledge is power and who controls it is an important question in any society.

So back to Chris and Rob’s problem, however you phrase the question, how high the walls? how much freedom? Who controls what is taught and learned, the government? the schools? the teachers? the parents? the students?

The read-write web is indeed shaking all of this up just about as much as Guttenbergs invention did 500 years ago. After the book life was never the same, and yes it was better. The book offered a dramatically increased ability to manage, and share information. This had a profound effect on the world and ushered in the Renaissance, the scientific revolution and led to the Age of Enlightenment. So the quesitons are old ones. How much control, perhaps that is not the question that teachers should be concerned with. Maybe the question is in an increasingly connected and yes transparent socieity is control possible the way it was tradtionally enjoyed?

Let me tell you before the book in feudal society a few Kings and religious elders controlled everything, and that was that. It was an autocratic world where power was closely guarded. The advance of the book began to organize men around ideas, and indeed eventually killed feudal society . After the book it was almost impossible to contol people as they had been before.

Pol Pot knew this in Cambodia when he attempted to recreate feudal society, and the controls it had by making the population leave the cities and forcablly recreating peasant farm life. Education had no place in Pol Pot’s plan and in fact an infamous school the former, Tuol Svay Prey High School, was used as a place of draconian torture known as S-21.

Back to the question of control in our world. Rob makes a good point when he says “Online interaction between students, parents and other members of the community have already started and will continue whether the school provides space for it or not. At this time, schools are not deciding if their students and parents will be online, they’re just deciding whether they will be central or peripheral to the online experiences of their community members”

I have no answers Moodle, or some other “safe, controlled service to manage the read-write web in the classroom” is probably beside the point. The issue is one of control and just like with the invention of the book, with the read-write web there has been a dramatic shift in who controls knowledge and it’s access. This is a revolutionary change. and I don’t expect anyone to be too comfortable right now, or”know what to do”. History teaches us that no one is very comfortable during a revolution.

This video I found where all good things are found on, Will Rich’s Blog. It is rather intense and in 5 minutes clearly communicates the essense of Web. 2.0. Something that many of the blogospheres sharpest pontificators attempt to do on a daily basis, but fall somewhat short in comparison.

Quick update, and a webcast from FETC . Our school has purchased the November blogging service. We will roll this out formally in the next few weeks. The interesting thing is that we have a few teachers who have already started their own blogs. Like new bloggers they seem excited. Our kids have also started their own Kidsnewsblog, which is just in its infant stages. The idea here is I make them blog about what I want and here they can blog about what they want. I was showing them how to navigate Wordpress dashboard yesterday and most knew how to use this technology because they all have My Space accounts. Not really surprised but again it brings home the point these children in my case ( 4th, 5th, and 6th graders) are using Web 2.0. technologies outside of the classroom. Now to try and get my colleagues to use them inside the classroom.

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Now the tie in between us beginning to blog and what Will and Rob have to say about Web 2.0. technologies . The podcast is interesting they take a look at some creative classrooms that are using blogging and pod-casts to connect students to the larger world. Valuable stuff. What struck me is the points that Rob makes about how to apply this stuff to a larger audience, systemic change whole school districts etc….

I can’t help but think we need leadership on high level for real change to happen. Something Will said about presidential hopeful John Edwards (not that he is a John Edwards fan) , using his blog to run his election in a participatory manner where he responds directly to bloggers queries made me think we need a president who understand this stuff. Elect a president who understands social technologies and their untapped power in education and creates a NCLDC ( No child left disconnected) act.

Rob makes it clear that a Field of Dreams approach will not jive here. The “if you build it they will come” approach to change will lead to nowhere.

He retorts “if you build it but do not convince, A.P.’s principals, Superintendents, etc…of its importance, if you do not make Web 2.0. technologies standards based with quantitative standards, nothing will happen. You will just be left with a green field populated by a few teachers, isolated silos of educational excellence, but no system change.
I can apply this to my own school, things are changing not as fast as I would like perhaps. I would love if our administration would make blogging a requirement, or at least reward bloggers, but things are changing. In part this is due to one of our A.P.’s is in the know about Web. 2.0. technologies, and he is dedicatd to bring about change in this area to our school culture.
Anyway click on the pic below to listen for yourself and post a comment if you like.

Technorati Tags: Web 2.0 fetc07

I am excited, frustrated, and a little impatient.

We had Alan November at our School in Staten Island on January 13th, and as expected he was terrific. He really connected with our staff. With his permission I will be posting a pod-cast of that session in the near future. If you have never seen Alan speak I suggest you do. He is the ultimate teacher and does something all the really good teachers do, use their natural curiosity to drive their classroom/audience. Good teachers model learner’s curiosity for their students, unafraid of where that may lead . In essence creating the perfect classroom model, good teachers learn with their learners.

Okay so Alan was good.

Our teachers were inspired. Many are now playing with Skype, del.icio.us and Garageband.

Many are now open to seeing their classrooms, and how they teach in new ways. So What Now? How do we keep the momentum going, and just where do we want this momentum to take us?

Our plans are to contract Alan’s company as a blogging service and see where that leads. I myself am looking into some grant writing, to support our endeavors.

I will keep you posted as to how successful we are to try and get a good portion of our teachers running their own blogs, and just how this impacts our small special education school.

Technorati Tags: Web 2.0 Alan November

Written January 3rd, not posted until the 22nd

Well Maybe not such a big Hello, just Happy New Year. As an educator, I have been faithful to my mission, as blogger less so.

I was just doing my bloglines self assigned reading.  I think I read about 70 tech-ed blogs a week or so.   I was reading what blog guru Will Rich saw as his most important posts of the year. One struck a cord as I look at how faithless I have been to edublogging, Reinvention: I Quit , It was Will’s post on how he quit teaching to write books, present and blog and spend more time with his family.

I don’t know if his post makes me feel better or not. I think in my gut that good teachers, need to be in the classroom, in the schools, etc… So many of them, the good ones leave the classroom, for out of classroom positions or even better district supervisory jobs. I guess we need leaders and perhaps it is impossible to be good at two things at once. Will discusses leaving his job just short of a pension. My cynicism leads me to think presenting must be “lucrative” in order to make such a move.

I met Will at Alan November’s conference (BLC06) last year and he was quite good, I got a lot out of him and his book.

In this coming week I have Alan November coming to talk to my teachers about what classrooms should, could or will look like and anything else that he wants for that matter.

This post is raw and disjointed at best.

A nagging question I have had increasingly is if blogging is so wonderful, and I think it is, and if it is as Will points at very time-consuming how do we get teachers to embrace and actively blog? )It is not like they have a lot of extra time on their hands.)

Technorati Tags: k12online06 k12online

Well I have been participating in the K12 Online conference.On and off I am presently listening/watching the movie
Download

I am trying to think of what I like best about this conference, well I though David Warlick was very engaging, not mindblowing at first. But I watched his presentation twice and I have reflected again and again on things he talked about.

I listened/watched David Warlick’s Keynote this morning. Without a doubt it is like no other conference. I had a similar kind of experience at Alan Novmember’s bash in July. I have gone back and re-listened to some of the workshops I attended. Which is the beauty of a conference such as this that is not time-constrained. I choose when I learn. Not new. Tivo for students,but really radical in many ways.

To make a point of these observations. I think I got so much more reviewing the workshops

I attended at Novmeber in the privacy/comfort of my own bedroom. The fact that I can 

go back to this again and revisit, get a

new perspective, when I am relaxed or the mood strikes me is a tremendously powerful teaching tool.

Leads me to 2 points, about online learning in general. Point one, anyone can learn, because you can rewind it as many times as you like so to speak and ” get it right” in your own time frame. Secondly, the “teacher” better have something solid and relevant to share, fluff and druff will not do. Online learning will exist for a long time, so if you have said nothing, you may fool some of the people the first time, but chances are you might not fool them the 2nd time they view it. Wow very difficult for a presenter/teacher, makes you feel a little vulnerable I imagine.

I want to make a few other observations, “the sidetrips” David speaks of is where the true learning has always been, good or maybe the word I am looking for is “great” teachers have always known this. The thing is the internet/information/digital tools, just put this concept of “sidetrips’ into over drive. What it reminds me of is the way scientists work, sure they have a rail, in fact they know every inch of the rail, it is branded into their brains, but that is not “learning” that is memorization, the regurgitation of facts or principles is not learning. Real learning takes place on these “sidetrips” when a teacher/coach says something like okay so you know this. or you have these set of facts at your disposal, now where can you, or do you want them to take you? I had a great teacher who used to say about questions of ethics/history/etc..”who is to say?”, Just who is the “Expert” and then he would bellow,(for a very quiet man) “You, you are to say”. It is your job to go find the truth and be the “expert” This information age we are in or entering is allowing this to happen. Here I am sharing my thoughts with everyone who cares to read. Astoundingly powerful stuff.I am getting ready meanwhile for my schools, mock election one

I have not put the time into this blog and I feel rather guilty about that. So I make a commitment to post at least 3 times a week.

Wait this is beginning to sound like one of those pathetic New Years Resolutions to lose weight or stop fighting with your wife. You know you say it, write it and then you just go on doing as you please.

So why don’t I teacher-blog? Well part of it is because I spend a lot of time on my student blog. That is not the real reason. The real reason is I just don’t make the time for here.

The same reason I am 20 pounds overweight. I don’t make the commitment. So I don’t achieve the goal.

Really that is such a simple principle in education and in life, either you make the commitment or not. No excuses.

I really think the Buddhists put this idea out best in some of the Thai forest Theravada texts. Particularly from the teaching of a wonderful monk from this tradition, Ajaan Chah. I remember one story I always liked that to me made the idea of either you do something or not very clear.

Some westerners if my memory serves me were staying at his forest monetary, the conditions were a little rugged to say the least and they were sweeping around their huts in the sweltering heat and bugs of Southeast Asia.

The point of traveling from Harvard, which is where these gentlemen were from, was I think to get less attached. Thereby freeing up the body and mind to ” have a moment that belonged entirely to itself, not memory, not desire, not physical/mental comfort, or pain for that matter.” A moment in the moment so to speak”.
I don’t know If the venerable Ajaan Chah would agree with my summation of what a forest retreat was “supposed to achieve”, and since he is dead since 1992, I suppose there is no way to really know.

Anyway that is what I think the goal was, less attached to everything, (if it can be said Buddhist monks “have goals”.)

One PHD from Harvard I believe was very distressed sweeping in the heat and suffering obviously. This joyful old monk came up behind the man, smiling, really beaming and said with utter delight, “suffering much? Paused and then broke out in laughter and said ” too bad, too attached”.

And there you have it. Either you work toward your goal, or you don’t.

Not a warm, fuzzy fact but an inevitable one. It seems to me with the amazing inventions the information age offers in full swing, and the freedoms that virtual life offers, that some educators/ students would think maybe things would get easier.

Now this seem like as Homer Simpson would “crazy talk” if you think how the invention of the horseless carriage complicated life for the folk of the last century. Yes the car made more things possible, but it did not make “life easier” if anything I think it made it more difficult.

So there you have it, either I commit to this blog and actually reflect on what I am doing my class or I don’t. You really want something you do it, you may fail, but you do it. Or you don’t.

I think the question I have to answer is the one everyone has to answer, including the PhD’s from Harvard being eaten alive by bugs in the forest, what do you want?
Do I want to self reflect on teaching in this new world or not and share my experiences, as this “sharing” seems to be the greatest good” in this “ delicious/myspace/youtube/google-zon” world.
(Is my ambivalence about all this obvious? I am not completely convinced blogging for bloggings sake is that vital to education, though super-edu-bloggers like Will Rich David Warlick,Alan November or my hands down personal favorite, Stephen Downes, make me think perhaps it is, as I learn so damn much at their digs.)
Well stay tuned, if there is something to stay tuned to, and what I “really want” will be revealed in my action or lack of.

Today just a link to a podcast by Alan November and Will Richardson on the Read-write web and the amazing tools and opportunities for classrooms. These two experts give a good overview of just what is happening in the new world here is the link listen also I suggest you check out Mr. Richardson’s new book available at Amazon, Blogs,Wiki’s, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools. I am in the process of buying it for everyone I know.

Lots of things are going on for me in my head since the November Learning Conference, teaching, ethics and information, and the state of affairs in the system in which we live (the system I live in as an educator is NYC DOE). I am awake to the fact that we have responsibility and opportunity to move things in a positive way. The fear of not moving, because of well, the fear of moving things.

I feel like I am at the beach and just been salt-water smacked by a large wave, as my back was turned. I barely just saw the wave coming out of the corner of my eye, (by the way I never would have seen the wave at all without some great teachers who supported me a complete technophobe in becoming somewhat technologically literate)

Anyway, back at the beach, saltwater smack! Then taken out to sea and thrown 20 feet or so into the waves. Now I can swim, sort of, (I am NYC teacher for 22 years after all), but when this happens on the beach things never feel the same, it is a tipping point. When you are finally slammed back down on the sand hard, you feel light-headed like the first day after a bout of a really nasty flu, nothing looks the same and you usually are left with some souvenir bruises and abrasions. I love that feeling!

Ok so how does my day at the beach relate to teaching, information literacy (I hate that term), and what I do as a teacher ? I don’t really know. I just know that something big is coming, in information literacy, and there is a huge resistance to it in education as well as other places.

Resistance to a wave of this magnitude however is pointless, it is going to happen no matter what. This wave, a creative/destructive force, will tear down old worlds and build new ones. Not since the horseless carriage have we seen a wave this big, (as I said resistance is futile, and just so you know the horseless carriage wasn’t actually embraced at its inception either. Stage-coach drivers feared it would put them out of business, and the general population were as scared of these noisy smelly machines as their horses were.) Kind of the way many fields (education) have responded to the read-write web.

Incidentally the big wave is also a children’s book by Pearl S. Buck. It is the story of a tidal wave and 2 boys learning to face a life that is never a sure thing. One of the characters, an old man who lives on the hill, has always intrigued me.
The boy Jiya is from a nearby fishing village that is wiped out in the wave. The orphaned boy goes and lives with the old man. The old man is stunned that after he grows up, he wants to return to be a fisherman, and perhaps face death himself in a future wave. The old man cannot understand why the fisherman again and again rebuild their houses on the shore knowing eventually a wave will come and erase them. I get why they rebuild on the water, they are fishermen and that cannot be erased by any wave. What I don’t get is why they don’t rebuild them in different ways, with more give in the foundations, using different technologies perhaps.

A shift in architectural design might give them and their structures a better chance of surviving the next big wave. I see a real parallel to how we are responding in education to the information tsunami. We are still building the same straw hut fishing village, and hoping for the best.
One thing is sure the big wave is coming, several smaller ones have come already, and the edu-legislators can’t prevent the information tsunami.

So now what?

I had the good fortune to attend the November Learning conference this month in Boston. Four great days with not a lot of sleep, but some great convesations. I had the pleasure of meeting Alan November last year, and started a classroom blog on his weblog hosting site with my students( Our Blog)
It is hard to explain how profoundly blogging changed my classroom, suffice it to say I cannot imagine teaching ( after 22 years) without a blog.
Alan, who came to our district in NYC in July 2005 for 2 days of mind-blowing pd is to say the least extremely inspiring, but his message is more important than his presence.
If I read his message right, it is that the world is changing, and has changed. Students are changing and have changed( for instance 30% of all students have thier own blog which means the same kids who hate to write in classrooms across the country, go home and write in some form nightly without being forced).Not only have students changed but more importantly the way students learn has changed. In contrast to these facts the way we teach has not changed in pace with the changes in our students or the world. In some cases our teaching has not changed at all.

This was amazing to me. I always thought of myself as a good teacher, innovative, never taught the same thing the same way two years in a row. I wrote grants, created projects for classes that engaged my students on many different levels. Always attempted to give my students” authentic” experiences in and out of the classroom. But I am a bibliophile. I love books, and more importantly the process of reading. I think the process of reading changed my life. When I became a technology coordinator, I actually cried because I loved teaching with books, and felt that nothing could ever replace them. I still do not think that anything can replace books. That said, after the conference and my year blogging with my kids I am begining to see just how powerful these tools, internet, blogging, podcasts, social-bookmarking, etc… can be.

The ability of students to respond with immediacy and connectively is daunting. Never mind the piece that everyone on the web is their potential audience.( 22 years of teaching has taught me nothing if it has not taught me that kids find an authentic audience a powerful motivator)

So now I am thinking of how I will re-design my classroom to incorporate and take advantage of the power these amazing tools offer?