Affluence

There have been a few ideas tossing around in the back of my brain for the last week as the material from both of my classes collides like the sea on rocks. The first concept that jumped out at me was that of social affluence. We really are privileged to be living in a society where the majority of people can retrieve whatever information they need in a matter of minutes. The more connected and knowledgeable people are, the quicker the information will arrive.

Clarence Fisher mentioned that teachers should be network administrators and be responsible for hooking kids up with information. I believe that most teachers think that that is what they are doing. However, as we all are becoming acutely aware, what we believed as a solid method of delivering knowledge and how we can deliver a truly authentic learning experience are quite different. I think back to how Clarence connected with the African community and his students truly learned about race, poverty, AIDS and a number of other social situations by walking a mile in the other person's shoes and not just reading about it in a book or listening to a lecture on the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

We are living in a country and province that has the ability to turn every classroom into a global communications center. The only questions are whether we, as teachers, will give up the notion that we have to be the experts instead of collaborators and can we convince the technology people at central offices to allow us to have full access to the internet so that we may hear the stories of other people and cultures?

Mathman33

Meme: Passion Quilt

I would like to thank kwhobbes for tagging me for the passion quilt. It has been many years since I actually have taken a photo so I had to resort to finding an image from the internet.

I believe that there are a number of factors that influence the success of any student. Similar to how there are a number of different factors that influence the success of any particular golf swing. When the pieces come together, it is a beautiful thing - whether it is the perfect shot in golf or that light bulb moment of learning when everything makes sense and you feel like you can conquer the world. However, we have all had our days when we feel that we will never understand what is happening. Regardless of whether we are talking about education or golf, there is only one thing that will make us better - PRACTICE!

So the next time your students are writing an exam or you have called upon a student to answer a question, ask yourself what thoughts and doubts are going through their mind as they try and put together the answer they perceive that you want.

Now I have to choose five people from my twitter/social network to continue on the quilt. I will apologize in advance but I will select Corey Terry, Dean Miezianko, Todd Volk, Tammy Sillers, and Luis. The rules are below.

The meme works as follows: The rules are simple.
1. Think about what you are passionate about teaching your students.
2. Post a picture from a source like FlickrCC or Flickr Creative Commons or make/take your own that captures what YOU are most passionate about for kids to learn about…and give your picture a short title.
3. Title your blog post “Meme: Passion Quilt” and link back to this blog entry.
4. Include links to 5 folks in your professional learning network or whom you follow on Twitter/Pownce.

Mathman33

Video is now working

Sorry to those who were really quick at checking my post. I had a couple of technical glitches with my video but it should be working now.

Mathman33

Major Project Started

Hello again,

Well I have started my major project. I am creating a series of videos that will educate teachers on how to use some of the programs that we are exploring in this class. My first video is on Animoto. If you would like to see the first episode please follow the link to my Animoto lesson. I created the video using Camtasia (the 30 day free trial version - not the $300 version). I would appreciate any feedback that you have, but please keep in mind that I am a rookie using the software (sorry for the breathing - you'll hear what I mean). Thanks.

Mathman33

I think I'm starting to get it

My mind seems to be full again so I need to get some stuff out before I go to bed (or more likely play my Xbox 360 until I wake my wife up and then I will pay dearly tomorrow). So, in no particular order, here is what I am thinking tonight:

1. My first principal (Bill Sherven) always used to say, "Work smarter, not harder". Well if that did not come back to me during our last class as one of the primary reasons for social networking. Teachers are always trying to find more time in their day to accomplish the many tasks that are required of them yet the one thing that we don't do is use our time to find contacts who may have already done the tasks for us!

2. Until now I have been very reserved about commenting on other peoples blogs. I thought that these blogs were primarily for our own thoughts and reflections and I did not want to seem too judgmental about what others were experiencing or feeling through our learning process. That changed when I listened to our last class. I appreciated the comments from Dean S. and the others in the chat room that emphasized that the primary purpose of commenting was to expand our social networks and develop the relationships that start by reading blog posts. So, thanks to all that read this and I pledge to do a better job on commenting to other blogs.

3. If you haven't checked out Kelly Christopherson's blog titled Educational Discourse, you really need to do yourself a favour and subscribe. I don't know how he finds time to write but most of his stuff is very thought provoking.

4. I am going to try making my first podcast this weekend for the start of my major project. Wish me luck and if anyone has any tips or pieces of advice I would gladly welcome them.

Ciao for now!
Mathman33

Dr. Seuss & Social Networking

As I was watching TV while eating supper last week I was surprised to learn that there was a connection between Dr. Seuss and our last lesson on Social Networking by Sharon Peters. In Dr. Seuss' book, Horton Hears a Who! one of the messages of the book is that there is a world beyond things that you cannot see. As a beginning teacher I was primarily concerned with surviving. Teaching in a small town and having to prep for 8-10 classes a day I wasn't concerned what was happening outside of my classroom or my school. After a few years I started to get involved in my local teachers' association and eventually I was elected to the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF) executive. That experience was incredible. I felt that the walls of my educational community had been blown apart exposing me to the outside world of education (similar to the Shareski photo "No Walls" . Now that I am taking this class, I am having a similar experience. I have been amazed at the number of people and the number of resources that are available for teachers' to use at no expense to the teacher or the school division. Perhaps that is why I am leaning towards creating a series of podcasts that will educate teachers to the various resources that are available online and provide them with a video tutorial on how to use each resource (maybe I am too ambitious but I will find out next week as I try and create my first episode). As I conclude this post I would just like to take the opportunity to thank all of the people who have raised their collective voices that have allowed me to expand my knowledge and realize that there is a world beyond the things that I could not see.

Have a good day!
Mathman 33

When two classes collide

"We must be the change we wish to see in the world". - Mahatma Gandhi

As some of you may know, I am taking two classes this term to finish my degree by April. My other class is an ethics in education class. As I was listening to the recording of Tuesday's session with George Siemens I could not help but think that there was a distinct connection between the two classes that I am taking this term.
I found that many statements caught my attention. Some of which include:

• Knowledge is always in flux
• Ethics is a form of knowledge
• The values are in the technology
• Nature of knowledge is found within its connections
• Modeling + judgment + trust
• Knowledge is a river not a reservoir

In my ethics class, we are investigating if it is possible to come up with a shared ethic for our world. We are struggling with the question on how we are supposed to balance and respect all other viewpoints for the sake of coming up with a common standard of behaviour. I believe this is also a struggle with how we will develop and use technology. Siemens pointed out that our values are inter laden in the technology that is being developed. Therefore, if we wish to change the world we live in, we must be careful in which technologies we support.
Having a technological 'shared ethic' also emphasizes the importance of the social network. The greater the number of connections that we can develop, the more conversations that we can have over what is important and what methods and strategies can be used so that we can be more effective as educators (and citizens of the planet). By working together through our developing social networks we can only deepen and widen the river of knowledge that we are able to access in order to improve our world.

That's all for now.
Mathman33