The blogosphere was discussing the merits in having students blog at a variety of age levels this weekend. This post from Jan 2007 was re-introduced as an outstanding reationale for why we should engage our students in blogging. (It doesn't address how, just why.) I agree with the list the author, Anne Davis from the College of Education at the University of Georgia, has compiled and have found it to be true in my own blogging experience. Nothing has ever made me question word choice or refine my thoughts like blogging when I know others will be reading it. Please take a few minutes read and comment if so motivated.
The posts references a chapter on the new literacties. The chapter is worth a quick read.
One passages that resonated with me was:
The new literacies are, to a large extent, socially constructed
Early evidence (Labbo, 1996; Labbo & Kuhn, 1998), as well as logical deduction from current trends, suggests that the new literacies will be ever more dependent on their social construction than traditional literacies. It will be impossible for every child to become expert in every new technology for information and communication that appears. As networked information resources become more extensive and complexly structured, and as ICTs continue to change with some frequency, no one person can be expected to know everything there is to know about the technologies of literacy; these technologies will simply change too quickly and be too extensive to permit any single person to be literate in them all. Each of us, however, will know something useful to others. This will distribute knowledge about literacy throughout the classroom, especially as students move above beginning stages. One student may know the best strategies for developing a hypermedia presentation while another knows the best way to use a new video conferencing technology. We will need to support children in learning how best to learn from others. Each of us will have a certain level of understanding of core technologies that meet our needs. For other technologies, we will need to rely upon others, expert in those technologies, to show us how things are accomplished. Internet Workshop and other collaborative approaches will be especially useful (Leu & Leu, 1999).
THis passage supports part of what we tried to do with last week's integrated units. We were exposing students to lots of things and the goal wasn't necessarily to make them all experts but to get them collaborating in figuring it out and to create a collective intelligence. Many of you have heard me say that we were collectively ready for one-to-one.
I'm sending this post to all faculty but I think it might be most relevant for some conversations I've had with English teachers. I think it might be worth reading this and reflecting on how it interfaces with the NCTE'sDefinitiion of 21st century Literacies. That said, one of the educational blogs I most enjoy reading is an AP Biology teacher's blog. Our own math deaprtment is delving into the blogging world with their students.
The author of the blog post wrote on Sept 5th about the Connectivism Course I emailed all of you last week. (I did have a few takers to try the course with me.) Its not too late to sign on for a learning adventure! I'm thinking maybe every Thursday during activities period those of us attempting to follow the course can meet and discuss.
Just as an FYI for all of you, this Monday 5 teachers will be participating in a technology professional development opportunity that they will be sharing with their departments. It is a year long program called Powerful Learning Practice and teams us with 20 other school teams from other independent schools in the US, New Zealand and Australia.The first meeting is face to face. Future meetings will be electronic. Tex Tourias, Peter Barrs, Rachel Tourias, Amy Scheer, and Matt Hixenbaugh are our participants.
To comment you must login at the top of the page and click on comments. I'll be posting information on this blog fairly regularly. We'll be talking about how to subscribe to it soon! Each of you have a blog on this site. It would be great if you could casually blog about the ways you are using technology in your classroom and your thoughts about our progress with one-to-one -what is going well, what needs work, what we can do better, feedback on the integrated unit. At the top of the page, click on Your Blog to post technology related things from your world. Where possible, please provide links to sample projects.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Enjoy MOnday and Tuesday without me pestering you! Thanks for the first two weeks! I personally think one to one has been great! Students and teachers deserve a pat on the back!
