It's not really homework

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 So… my son Nolan is on the IPad the other night with his friend Evan… using FaceTime, playing games, and talking to each other. I thought that was pretty cool. Nothing unusual for the times we live in, especially for younger people. But what caught my attention is what happen an hour later in the kitchen. I was so excited, I recorded it on my smart phone to share with a few colleagues of mine at school. One colleague suggested I post it, which is the reason for this blog.

Anyway, there he was in the kitchen, on the IPad with his friend, doing his math homework. I thought he was just multitasking. It turned out that he and his friend were doing their homework together… not copying from each other, but actually collaborating, figuring it out, discussing their answers. It was outstanding! They were not only able to talk about their answers, but show each other how they got the answers… visually.

Keep in my, my son rarely likes doing his homework and especially struggles a bit with his math . But as the time progressed that night, he was enjoying the time with his friend, enjoying the experience of being the teacher and student all at once.

THIS is what education is about… people finding a way to enjoy learning… getting the chance to be the teacher, not just the student. Making connections, without being asked or told to! Now, some would say... oh, that's just what they do when they're on the phone together. But I beg to differ. This is not just bells and whistles added to the phone call. This is making a connection.

 

So enjoy the small clip I recorded, and I challenge all of us out there to think about what is important. Is it the homework that we ask our students to do... or is it... helping young people discover how to learn for themselves. Creating the avenues that get them "wanting" to learn what they can learn AND contributing to our society somehow.

Information management and strategies

One of my main concerns with the with the digital age... there is just sooooo much. It almost makes me feel like I am drowning in information. How in the heck am I going to manage all of this "stuff"?
Thankfully, our digital age provides some pretty cool answers.... (thanks Michell and Andrew!)

Diigo is one of my favorite online sources that I have used for a long time to help me with part of this daunting task. Currently I have over 120 bookmarks for my own personal favorite sites which I can access on any device online ... and... I have every one of my classes (students) involved with it in one capacity or another. It allows my classes to share topics, points of interests, even their portfolio site URLs, which makes for a streamlined, engaging class.

An app I was not aware of that is quickly becoming my favorite to use is Flipboard. I like it! One of my main complaints is the same one that Chris Radtke mentioned on his blog Getting Organized on the Web... "the information can be overwhelming and quite difficult to process".... (http://cjradtke.blogspot.com/2012/10/getting-organized-on-web.html). I had been searching for just such a tool to use to save me from drowning in all this stuff. The moment I learned about Flipboard I immediately began to tie the things I used together with it. Now my Diigo, Google reader, Facebbok, (and many more) are all right there... organized and ready to view. And the interface of reading like a magazine is super cool.

I can truly say that this connected journey has a lot of promise for me now. The new tools and strategies available will definitely "grease the wheels" of my continued consuming and contributing to society and my students. My only concern is the still the one I blogged about previously (Learning in a Networked World), that there could be consequences not yet imagined.

tweet tweet, re-tweet

Okay, so I admit it... I am not a tweeter. And by no means am I interested in "re-tweeting" a tweet.
I have explored the tools and investigated different tweet hash topics. I took a bit of time investigating something of value to "re-tweet". Nothing! Well, that's not entirely true. But, what I think is interesting would not interest the people following me. I think my frustration comes from trying to obtain either something in my field (education and art) or in the field of those who follow me. Maybe it's more of a mind set...
Contributing to the "world" definitely is inviting. But what if my contributions are insignificant, childish, or just thought to be "ludicrous" by the friends or society out there? ...there in lies my conflict with tweeting or re-tweeting what I feel is important.... getting "labeled" as a "this or that" and it appearing more like "noise" on anyone's Twitter (again, it is probably a bad mindset on my part). To me, I feel it could be as bad as those people who tweet that they just finished eating piece of toast and are am off to the library... ya know what I mean?

Yea, I am still at the step of just being a consumer and it will be difficult for me to do the next step , like tweeting or re-tweeting. Of course the other issue is time. The more you become involved with this process, the less time you have for other things. As I continue with the "Connected Journey" class I am finding that the time issue can be curtailed a bit with the technology itself, thankfully.

 In case you are interested, these are some of the topics and people I have been currently following... #infowars, #healthranger,  #bibleprophecy, #EconomicCollapse, #Predictions2013 and the #2amendment. The beauty of the technology of our day is how quickly and how easily we can switch our interests and pursue the next big thing for us.

Stop Stealing Dreams

(33). Who will teach bravery?....Can risk-taking be taught?

I believe it already is happening in the schools. When you consider music or drama or even art, students are constantly taking chances. Courage (and bravery) to perform, create, display, "try something new" are all inherently integrated with these disciplines. I don't agree that "Bravery in school is punished, not rewarded". I think Godin is over exaggerating the facts a bit here. I would go as far to say that students are being challenged (taking chances) throughout all the acedemics in the "more effective" classrooms, at least where I teach it is.


29. The other side of fear is passion 
43. How not to teach someone to be a baseball fan....
"The industrialized, scalable, testable solution is almost never the best way to generate exceptional learning."  (How true!)
109. What great teachers have in common is the ability to transfer emotion

I grouped these together for my response because I felt they connect

Most of us really need to find away to engage students, or provide the right circumstances for them to do it themselves. Students need motivation (other then a good test score) to desire to do their best, to be a true learner.
I remember a story, one of my old profs told me, that kind-of fits here. It is a bit off topic, but still relevant. When this prof was starting-off as a young elementary art teacher ("student teacher" to be exact), he had a problem. He was one of those art teachers that had no room of his own, so he would "roll" into the room with all the supplies for the day. Anyway, he had very little supplies to work with his students. In fact, the only thing he had was "blue paint", paper and paint brushes. He resolved the problem by his approach with the kids.  With that particular lesson, he began by slowly rolling in with his cart. Almost in a whisper, he begins saying..." Ya know what we have today (pausing, with a mischievous smile).... We have..... (with a shout) BLUE PAINT. WE GOT BLUE PAINT. And he ran around and around the room repeating the words... blue paint. He worked those kids up so much, that blue paint became the coolest thing in the world... nothing else mattered.The lesson was irrelevant, because the kids would have settled for the worst he could have given.... the paint was all they could think of.
The moral of my story is that "motivation"... getting them interested... however you do it... is key. So, in a way all of the above quoted remarks, I think Godin is also suggesting this.

Learning in a Networked World

Have you watched Will Richardson "Learning in a Networked World: For our Students and for Ourselves" yet?

I have. Twice in fact.
One point Will introduces during his presentation is that we educator (and learners) are to share our information... our treasures we have collected over time. Learning becomes exciting, desired and fulfilling. I get this... I do. This makes perfect sense to me, that we all collaborate to further ourselves and others in whatever the direction we wish to pursue.

However, as an educator, I find that I am both excited and reluctant to collaborate with the world. As an learner I am drawn to this idea. I can't tell you all how many times I have searched up something on the Internet to learn, or ran down to my colleague on the other side of the building to collaborate on an idea for our classes. This tactic is standard operating procedure for me... it has been for most of my life. But, I must admit, there are "thoughts and ideas I would be concerned with sharing to the world... in fear that those "things" would be taken (stolen) and used in a way that would profit others monetarily while I stood by helplessly watching. Not that my ideas, thoughts, lessons I teach and "what-nots" are anything special, but they have possibilities. What if someone(s) would take those ideas, make them their own and drive me to unemployment? Crazy thought... I am not sure anymore.

On the other hand, like I eluded to above, it is very exciting to be part of a larger group of minds that have create or explore a specific thought or topic.... especially when the results are fruitful to you and others. I suppose my fears will have to take a back seat to it all.