instructional technology network
tri-county educational service center

One of the weaknesses of educational technology conferences, structured professional development offerings, and other traditional means of delivering educational tech training is that they often find one of two audiences: the group of people who are eager for this type of learning but need and want more, and the group of people who are sitting there thinking this couldn’t be less relevant. For the trainer, it’s difficult to adequately address either.

21st Century learning skills present a similar range of issues. Even if I were to discount the reluctant adopters, the amount of training that it takes to meet the needs of the eager learners group doesn’t fit in these neat time slots.

As a result, conference attendees return excited about the possibilities, but are not equipped to move forward - professional development sessions have either the time to outline the educational benefit of an approach to learning or the time to teach how, but often not both.

Imagine trying to teach your students all they need to know about a subject in one class period. No follow-up. No extension.

This is a similar situation.

Blogger and Educational Technology Consultant David Warlick outlines a dozen steps on a path to becoming a 21st Century literate educator. There are a couple steps that resonate more with me than others, but this list is very good.

A Path to Becoming a 21st Century Literate Educator — Self Development

1. Find two or more other educators in your school who are interested in learning and using emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs). It would be of enormous advantage if you can include your schools library media specialist.
2. Identify the appropriate person in your school or district who can provide technical support and configuration for your increasingly utilized computers and network. Bake them some chocolate chip cookies.
3. Identify some edu-bloggers who are talking about the emerging ICTs you are considering. See the Bloggers to Learn From wiki, contributed to by a world community of educators.
4. Delegate! Assign each member of your team some of the selected blogs to follow, and share specific posts with each other.
5. Read, study, and discuss books about teaching and learning and the world we’re doing it in. See the Books to Learn From . wiki, contributed to by a world community of educators.
6. Schedule regular meetings (once or twice a month) at a local restaurant, coffee shop, or pizzeria (preferably with WiFi). Meet and discuss what you’ve learned and what you want to learn.
7. Start a group del.icio.us (A social bookmarks service) account for organizing and sharing web resources.
8. Start a wiki for posting notes, links, and step-by-step instructions.
9. Join one or more of the Ning social networks, such as: School 2.0, Library 2.0, Classroom 2.0.
10. Start your own blogs for sharing your reflections on what you are learning and how you are learning it.
11. Start experimenting in your class and share the results.
12. Share your results with other teachers in your school and Invite them into your conversation.

You’ll notice that these step are self-guided. The pacing is your own. The ownership is your own. The rewards are your own to be shared with your students.

As Warlick concludes, “Start to model, in your job as a teacher, the practice of being a master learner.”

Image citation: DarkFram, “pausa caffè” DarkFrame’s Photostream. 5 May 2007. 14 Feb 2008 <http://flickr.com/photos/darkframe/486264072/>.

Most of the time the term technology is used to describe things having to do with batteries or plugs - even on this blog. While this definition is true, it describes only a small subset of what technology actually encompasses.

A broader, more complete definition of technology should incorporate the types of developments that enable us to do things better or to do things we could not otherwise do, including other fields like medicine, genetics, construction, manufacturing, and transportation. This applies equally to the pencil and the keyboard, to a rock-and-stick hammer and advanced robotics.

The best of problem-solving and design process, two staples of technological literacy, is displayed in this video clip. It is a solution to a problem (need for clean water), working within significant constraints (power, maintenance, cost) , and using readily available - and renewable - resources (the extra energy kids have that everyone wishes they could bottle and sell).

How are we preparing our students to think about and solve problems like this one?

I realize that this YouTube clip is not Bess-Friendly, but it’s worth finding a place to watch.

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQu_Jppvzyk

[via How To Change the World]

TechLearning has a good article today on computer lab practices.

Educator Larry Ferlazzo reflects on teaching in a computer lab, describing his own learning experiences and sharing with us some recommendations from those experiences.

This is the short list of five recommendations:

• Use computer more to reinforce key concepts, and less to teach them
• Students can be producers of content and not just consumers
• Computers can be used to help student develop and deepen relationships with each other, not just with the computer screen
• Use time in the computer lab to help develop leadership among students, and not just have them be your followers.
• Spend less time being the controller and more time helping students develop self control

In reality, these are best-practice recommendations for both the classroom and the computer lab. Ferlazzo describes each in more depth in his TechLearning article.

Ferlazzo’s blog and website are also a great source for ESL, ELL, and EFL resources.

Image citation: Old Shoe Woman, “Student in Computer Lab II.” Old Shoe Woman’s Photostream. 30 Sep 2005. 1 Feb 2008 <http://flickr.com/photos/judybaxter/48011845/>.