Learning Activity 7-A-1
Will Richardson’s big shifts contain big ideas. The idea that I would like to focus on is the shift to ‘web as notebook’. This is the easiest of the shifts for a person to learn. I am not a naturally organized person. I am a holistic thinker so it is easy for me to make connections, find information, and make more connections. What I have a hard time with is organizing it all. As a devotee of David Allen’s GTD system of personal productivity I have often looked for a single place to organize the calendar, lists, etc. I use a paper and web system currently. Before settling on the productivity system I currently use I tried many different web apps like iScrybe, 30boxes, Google Apps, or the whatever was popular on the blogs. This is my personal shift to ‘web as notebook’. I mindmap with mindmeister and organize with evernote. So what does this all mean for my students? It means that if I am going to have my students using online tools I better plan for a time climbing the learning curve. I had to do it, they will need to do it also. When I taught students just today about the idea of a wiki they were giving me feedback from their experience on myspace and facebook. I had to start from their experience online to explain where I wanted them to go and how I wanted them to collaborate. So the big shift to ‘web as notebook’ for teachers is a shift from using the file cabinet in the classroom to file cabinet online. the shift for students is online apps for social connections to online apps for disciplined academic use. When I say disciplined I mean the mindset that student needs to gain while working online. A student who is collaborating on a wiki has to develop the attitude that he or she is their to contribute, collaborate and complete assignments. Teaching students tools should be well thought out so that students are working on interacting with content instead of continually learning how to use the technology.
Some technologies for students or teachers who want to move to the web as a notebook
Google Reader in Plain English
Some questions:
How has this shift affected your teaching practice so far?
I am finding and using more research and real world experience of other teachers thru blogs and podcasts. I store this information on the web so I can access it and sort it out whenever I want.
How do you expect it might affect you in the future?
It will effect me by creating more variety in my teaching with more effectiveness. If an assessment or instructional method is working for a teacher with similar students I can read about it that day and store it in my web notebook for retrieval as I plan. This would have been a much slower process earlier involving going to a conference and only hearing about the good side of something, not the day to day observations.
Have your views changed since you started this course?
Yes, I am more likely to collaborate with other teachers instead of just lurking around blogs and reading.
How can you use technology to facilitate this shift in your own classroom?
I would like to use Skype more at school. I installed the U3 version on my thumbdrive so I can use it in my classrooms at school. Theoretically, i could collaborate long distance with Skype during my free period or lunch at school to get some real time feedback and advice.
1 Comment
You made a good point about how we as teachers need to be using these tools proficiently and productively before we teach them to our students. If our students see that the tools are valuable and serve a purpose in our life, they will be motivated to use them since they can witness the value in them.