Forum 1 - Technology VisionsThe Course Overview has a good deal of substantive detail about the philosophy of the course, the nature of the final assignment and its rational, and other non-administrative matters. In this Forum, everyone should make a single post with two thoughts/reactions about the substantive sections of the Course Overview. These thoughts/reactions can be about anything you like (e.g., how the vision I expressed is similar to or different from your own vision of educational technology; or elaborations on the ideas I mentioned; etc.). You should have a thoughtful 200-250 word post up at the Forum, by next Tuesday, the 7th, at 4:00 (EDT).Ever-changing. It is what keeps technology exciting and new to us and at the same time it can intimidate us as teachers. "Just tell me what to do!" The teachers on my staff can be heard saying. No one is opposed to using the latest practices but they just want to feel caught up once in a while. As the technology professional in our building and a teacher myself, I witness many times as I am teaching something new they feel like they're old practices are devalued. But they are excited about it at the same time, as it was in the case of obtaining SmartBoards and updating web presences for classroom. It can be frustrating to know that we'll never find fully formed answers about how to integrate technology, but I think the process of seeking can be just as important as finding them. As our syllabus points out, we have to learn to know how to think with technology rather than just master the latest software. For the digital immigrant teachers I work with, this sentiment is difficult because it isn't always natural to them. I think what I am most excited about with the latest technologies is the fact that we do not have to be adhered to a packaged curriculum. I have had growing concerns about the number of standards we are required to teach yet students fail to remember them later. I cringe when I think of all the classes I aced, yet I couldn't tell you key concepts from them today. You won't hear criticism of changing times from me. Keeping up with the newest is a personal challenge that I strive for. I am excited to explore in this class about method of operating in the open environment so that I can make best use of technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge.

Forum II - Open Educational ResourcesMuch of what we do in this class will involve open educational resources. It makes sense, then, that some of our first readings should be about the Open Educational Resources movement. For the next discussion forum, read the Foreward by John Seely Brown and Chap. 6 of the book Opening Up Education. It is available for free at:http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11309&mode=tocIn the discussion forum devoted to these two readings, you are asked simply to respond to the chapters and to offer your general thoughts at this time on the Open Educational Resources movement. Your post should be 150-200 words, and it should be up by the end of the day next Sunday, the 12th. Again, once your post is up, you should look over the posts of your classmates and respond – succinctly, constructively, and substantively – to some of them. (at least two). Open education? This is an expectation that our K-12 system that does not easily invite in. The "data-driven" school economy is strongly encouraging of traditional teacher-student relationships, the transmission of knowledge from the knower to the seeker. It's pretty easy to plan for: read chapter 2, answer questions 1-5, discuss in class. Now consider the multitude of options available if you veer from a textbook; from video and images to forums and wikis, books are no longer the only trusted source of information. But how to wade through all of that and find the best way of teaching something? The answer is that there is not one best way or one best source. I'm always searching for what I believe to be the best way of doing things. In the past, when I've taught a unit, I've created a folder to be reused the next year. However, in my 9 years of teaching I have never reused a file with exactly the same texts and activities. Why is this? Because things are always changing, so there is new information. There are newer, better written texts, and more concise videos. As a teacher leader regarding technology in my building, I am constantly asked to "just tell me what to do" to which I find I can never easily respond. There isn't one way to have students take in material. There isn't one way to have them collaborate. There isn't one way to have them create content to add to the ever-growing knowledge base. Teaching is an ever-developing craft, just as learning is.Sometimes I think I create more questions than answers! In the open learning platform, go figure!

Forum III - Educational Resources as discussed in the mediaOne of the main points in this course is that things are changing rapidly in the area of learning and teaching with technology, with undetermined consequences. This is a very widespread notion in the popular media, where developments are often greeted with alarm. Many of the central topics of this course are being discussed there, and the thoughts that are being expressed mirror many of the ones we will address. So let’s look at perceptions that are emerging in the general media, and then apply an analytical lens to discuss which are legitimate concerns and which are not. And where the concerns are legitimate, let’s see if we can find ways that the downside of tech developments (either actual or potential) can be turned around, taking challenges and turning them into opportunities.For your next reading assignment we will look at four articles in the non-academic media that deal with the debate about reading/learning online. [Note that some of the articles require you to click at the end to continue reading on a second or third page.]The following article from the front page of the Sunday New York Times produced a lot of discussion and heat. It was the most emailed Times article for several days running, and the 2nd most emailed Times article of the month in which it appeared:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html?ei=5070&em=&en=3af553b2563b6347&ex=1217476800&pagewanted=allThe following article from the Atlantic Monthly also generated a lot of attention:http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/googleFinally, here are two interesting pieces from the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post:http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125374569191035579.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/16/AR2009021601009.htmlRead these four articles. The discussion forum for these articles simply asks for your reactions.Post approximately 200-250 words by the end of the 23rd. Before then is good, too -- that way people can start the discussion earlier. Again, join in discussion threads that you find interesting (in addition to your own post). Add at the end of your post one URL for an additional article in the news media that you found especially telling. My first reaction to reading online is that I love the smell and feel of cuddling up with a good book. The video of the Sims family in the NYtimes article made me think of that, as the mom described her need to curl up in her favorite chair and read. However, the son gains lots of information reading his way as well. I took a reading course years ago in which the professor said "I don't care if they want to read an oil can; I just want them to read!" Well, I think the Internet provides everyone their own personalized learning portal, if they choose to take advantage of it. The daughter in the video spent much more time socializing and playing on the net, rather than using the Internet as a tool for personal growth . I think this is the fear of many educators and parents (just read the online comments on any local newspaper to see what I mean). If our students are using the Internet; we want them to be using it for good reasons. It is a value to teach.

Then take the example of the young lady who reads all of the fanfiction. I had never heard of this before, but I am fascinated with the world she is a part of.As a K-1 teacher, I am thinking of the texts my students will be expected to read in the next 12 years. I certainly hope that our district will support them with 21st century literacies (and stop buying textbooks already!) I know that the new media rich information is what they crave, and I know it is the way they are wired to learn. Now, about the Kindle. When it first came out, I poo-poohed it as unneccesary and never as good as a real book in my hands. Alas,I am an overworked, super-stressed, multi-tasking woman. It's self-inflicted, but nonetheless, I am always striving to do more with less time. I just got my Kindle for my birthday and am now happily listening to the World is Open for this class in the car for an hour a day. Woohoo! Having this text available digitally makes it accessible to me in a way that would not be available. Am I reading it? You bet! Am I enjoying it? Yes! Do I appreciate the book fitting in my purse? Oh yeah! The link I am providing references the kindle. In the year that Amazon's e-text sales are surpassing their physical book sales, I find it very relevant.http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_5RTMa3pxr8s/TGQ-src1Y1I/AAAAAAAAB3I/AGC562vpU-0/s1600/1280849255449.jpgReferenced by: http://www.21stcenturyfluency.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=1412I also am intriqued by this idea of the learning commons: a new way to structure a school to account for the literacies we are striving for: http://www.21stcenturyfluency.com/blogpost.cfm?blogID=1414

Forum: Learning with Deep and Open Searching on the Web (beyond finding answers)

Much of what we are going to eventually do with developing our Instructional Dreams (and that we expect you and your students will find increasingly central in learning and instruction) involves creative use of the web; and that begins with sophisticated web searching and synthesizing. That kind of learning doesn’t work if students are just trying to close down towards finding answers and facts on the Web. Rather they need to open up their searches to discover some of the ins and outs of the topic they are investigating. So, we will need to help our students a lot with getting beyond simple "find the answer" searches to Advanced Web Exploration (AWE) with a mindset of a Wide Open Web (WOW) (rather than a closed, find-the-answer mindset).We can't give our students that help if we don't have a good sense of how to do it ourselves. My experience has been that many people like those in this class could benefit (more than they often think) from pushing their search skills further. By pushing your own skills, you can see how much more complicated some of the things we try to teach are -- and thereby get a better sense of why your students sometimes have so much difficulty learning those things. Advanced and open searching is necessary for the Web to support deeper learning of the kind that was alluded to in some of the earlier readings from the popular media.Let’s take one example. The Michigan MEAP exam requires students to be able to use “core democratic values” (e.g., “justice”) in a letter to the editor about some topical issue. Students do very poorly in this exercise. Furthermore, social studies teachers uniformly report that they have trouble teaching these concepts in a way that supports their independent use by students in new contexts. I argue that the problem is with the WAY things like this are usually taught (with a short definition and a small number of examples), and that the Web can help to promote a much deeper understanding of this concept that supports its later application in new contexts (the cognitive concept of “transfer). So what I'd like you to do is take a commonly taught core democratic value, "JUSTICE" and spend two hours on the Web getting as deep in your understanding of how complex a term that is to USE as you can. In the end, besides insights about the nature of searching for deep and opening learning (rather than finding-an-answer type learning), I hope that many of you will be impressed with how much expertise/complex understanding you can develop in a relatively short amount of time. Start with a simple search that just uses the term "justice". But don't stop there! The whole point of this exercise is to raise our consciousness about how complicated many of the concepts we are trying to teach our kids are. If we want our students to have deep and widely applicable understandings, then we as teachers need to know the ins and outs of what it means to apply complex concepts we are trying to teach. And in discovering that through the Web, you will also get ideas about how you would teach the students complex concepts using the Web.Remember, you are not looking for definitions. Rather you are moving away from definitions (where simple definitions can't work, as it is with many of the things we teach, and which is certainly the case with “core democratic values”). You should be looking at lots of different USES of the term "justice",

and see how much they VARY while at the same time having enough of a family resemblance that it seems fair to call them all by the same name – that is, examples of "justice.However far you find yourself getting, the purpose of this exercise is to go deeper. When you think you've learned all there is to learn about how the concept of "justice” is used, look further. Find different slants. Try to find other varieties of meaning and usage. One of the great affordances of digital, random access media like the Web is that you can go in different directions. So you should have the mindset throughout this exercise that the meaning and use of the core value of “justice” is NOT THAT SIMPLE (whatever you’ve found). One good way to do that is whenever you think you’ve found something that’s a good clear example, look for an alternative construal of the concept in that same context. See if you can become a mini-expert on the use of this concept in that two hours (or at least much more of an expert than you are now).One other thing: don't look at the education and instruction sites (or not just the education sites predominantly). Look at the places where people actually talk about real things or events in the world, and use the term "justice" in some central way! That is, find places where the term is used in a real-world situation, not where it is being taught. Something you should be sure to do as you deepen your searches is ADD ADDITIONAL WORDS to your search query. You can STEER through the web with Google by adding words and phrases (inside quotes) to REFINE and REDIRECT your searches. Let your searches be SINUOUS – you have the ultimate NONLINEAR medium, so allow that nonlinear affordance to do its work in producing more comprehensive CRISS-CROSSINGS of this conceptual landscape. Develop and refine your searches as you go along as a function of what you have already found. (And if you find yourself getting stuck on some sites that don’t seem helpful – such as commercial sites – just quickly skip them, until you start getting to sites you are finding useful. You can also use a “not” command to exclude .com sites from your search results.) Note that this kind of searching is contrasted with the more common ways of traversing the Web that I am discouraging in this assignment: 1) just going down the list of sites that Google returns in response to a query, one after the other; and 2) going from site to site by following hot links (hyperlinks). In this exercise, you should be steering through the Web by refining your search queries as you go along, rather than being steered by what Google tells you or by someone’s pre-coded hyperlinks! By the way, I would like you to do this activity ONLY with Google. What I find is that each kind of search engine has its own subtleties of expert use, and you need to master these nuances so that you can steer through the web with control and flexibility. So rather than having shallower knowledge of several search engines – which would be useful for "finding the answer" but not as much perhaps for the kind of “digging deep” we are doing here – I want to encourage you to become expert with Google. And if you use Google well, there isn't much you won't be able to find. But more important, you will be able to better use the web for building more advanced knowledge more quickly if you are an expert with that most commonly used search engine.Those of you who are less experienced or confident in your searching skill should look at what Google can show you about how to do advanced searching. A few of you probably don’t know, for example,

that you can put quotes around a phrase to narrow searches to just that very sequence of words in that order. You should also be ready to employ other kinds of search “syntax”, for example the operator that allows you to exclude key words from the search (“not” searches), etc. Your post should be 300-400 words and describe your insights as you proceed through this exercise (so you probably want to keep a careful journal as you go along), as well as things that you found worked and didn’t work as you pursued the goal of trying to DEEPEN and DIVERSIFY your knowledge as QUICKLY as possible. Any other insights you achieved during this exercise should be noted as well. Be sure to at least have the following 3 components in your post (identify each of the 3 parts in your post): 1. Your observations about the processes of deep and open advanced searching for learning (beyond “finding answers”) on the Web as it relates to the SEARCH process.2. Your observations about the processes of deep and open advanced searching for learning (beyond finding answers”) on the Web as it relates to the LEARNING process.3. What you learned about the complexities, subtleties, variations, etc. in the way the core value “JUSTICE” gets used in real contexts. I have heard speakers at conferences give tips here and there about searches, but I still started with http://www.google.com/support/websearch/bin/answer.py?answer=136861 from google because it gives their own advanced search tips. I have used quotes and phrase searches before, but never used the colon for site specific searches or the – sign to exclude words. I guess I haven’t seen the need to do so, although I knew they existed.Search term: justiceThis first search led me to wikipedia. While some people downplay the importance of this site, I find it often points me in the right direction if I am trying to get the jist of something. In this case, I did find other search terms because it goes into history of justice and cultural differences as well. So just reading this put me in the "mode" I needed to be in to dig deeper.Search term: Justice:Nytimes.comThis produced many editorials, as did the serach term: injustice:nytimes.com Apparently these are heavily debated. This isn’t surprising, given the many definitions and applications of the concept. I did find it interesting to find the variety of contexts in which the words justice and injustice are used, though!Search term: What is justice?This yielded many books, ezine articles, and even a howstuffworks.com article. It really wasn't any more in depth than the wikipedia article, though I did then find the term Lady Justice. I laughed as I found http://socyberty.com/law/what-is-justice/?ewrd=1, which is a blog entry that seems to be used by many high school students searching “what is justice” (as noted by the many comments). I also found http://ezinearticles.com/?What-is-Justice?&id=3900765, an article about the history of the concept of justice, and http://bigthink.com/ideas/3966, a very telling piece by a yale law professor who opens with "if you think you know what justice is, you're probably going to start killing people next."Search term: Lady justice

I was not surprised to find out when I searched this term that Google also included images in the results. This is a feature I often appreciate! I spent quite a bit of time examining the different versions of lady justice and reading some of her history. Search term: Justice in schoolI wanted to find information about how schools are teaching justice. I ended up adding –public and –street to weed out actual school websites for schools with justice in the name. I found http://www.transformingconflict.org/Restorative_Justice_in_School.htm with a very interesting description of the restorative concept of justice in schools today versus the historically used retributive justice. It also led to a youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUA1AVf1SqI describing using this concept in schools. It was also interesting to note the google news examples that came up with this search term. Ideas such as "street justice," where someone receives retribution for crimes from other local members of the community rather than through the court system, were rampant in the articles.Search term: Justice in courtWhen I got to this search term I really noticed my favoritism of images, videos, and the like that highlight the many nuances of the concept of justice. I prefer them to the heavy reading. I found that, as a learner, I am much more likely to spend time considering images like this one: http://cottonmouthblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/alex-alston-uncovers-total-lack-of.html than to read the wikipedia, which I really just skimmed more for a different purpose (finding search terms, get the jist). In general, people use the word justice to describe what's fair; between friends, in classrooms and schools, and in communities. If someone does something outside the realm of "fair" then others react to this to create the society of justice. To quote wikipedia's definition, "Justice is the concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, fairness, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics." The carrying out of justice differs, and the way that people feel about it differs, but everything I found comes back to the basic idea. I guess I'm not sure why kids are struggling with this on tests; I sure would like to see some test questions to see what exactly they are being asked to do. (I teach K-1, so the concept of what's fair still is pretty basic right and wrong.) I believe debate and collaborative examination of resources are the best way to teach these concepts.

Forum - Will Richardson BookYour assignment is to make a post to this forum with the TWO MOST INTERESTING TAKE-AWAY POINTS YOU GOT FROM THE BOOK. (Those who have already posted, thank you – it has been noted!) This should be in the ballpark of 200 words or so, and it should be posted by next Tuesday afternoon. Will Richardson certainly has a deep understanding of the capabilitities that tools like blogs and wikis have and their potential for impacting learning. Here are a few points that I think really shaped my own understanding:-Teachers need to be using the tools as professionals and citizens first. This enables us to truly understand what we are asking students to do. I feel I have done this myself, but this point made me realize that when I am doing professional development with the teachers at my school, they are less willing to do blogging or other forms of student publishing (beyond type and print) because they don't have that same frame of reference. I've definitely decided that one of my tech PD sessions this year will be using these tools for your own personal benefit.-Many teachers have simply digitized the work they've asked students to do in the written world in the past. This is difficult for me, because I think that many of the things I ask students to do ARE similar to what we ask of them without technology. Here is a sample:

We are required to write a personal connection to our Scholastic News twice a month as part of our school improvement goals related to connections. Allowing students to use the 2Publish program from the Early Learning ToolKit didn't make it vastly different, but when they use Jing to screen capture their work and post it to their blog, it changes the motivation in the assignment and adds that element of "others will see this!"I don't have students commenting a lot on each other's work just yet, but I do plan to make that happen. We have a pretty high technical learning curve since they are only in 1st grade and the idea of saving files to network areas and uploading are all pretty new! After a few more attempts at our own posts, I plan to introduce commenting on each other's work by modeling myself on our blog and as a class on other blogs. I think that this form of publishing and sharing takes the digitized version of their work beyond simply word processing things we used to write.

I think this quote from a youtube of Will highlights what I am keeping in mind as I plan ahead for this: "We're still kind of in that technical mode; we're still kind of in that let's hand it to the student and the student reads it and consumes it, and that's just not the way the world works these days." -Will Richardson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFbDEBNS7AE If I am truly going to have 21st century 1st graders, I have to teach from NOW those critical habits that consumers of information must have.

Forum: Bonk BookYou should all have had a chance to complete reading the book by Curtis Bonk by now. This discussion forum asks you to identify 2 ideas from the Bonk reading that struck you the most. Identify the idea and the pages on which it crystallized for you. Briefly say why the idea impacted you. Also for each of the 2 ideas, find a post from one of the earlier discussion forums -- posted by someone other than you -- that relates in some interestingway to the idea from Bonk that you identified. Say something briefly about what you found resonant in the connection between the Bonk idea and the earlier forum post. You should have your primary post up by next Sunday evening, Oct 17. As always, earlier posts are welcome. Please comment on at least two other people's posts by Oct. 19. As a technology cheerleader for my school district, the macro trends that Bonk discusses as the structure for understanding his ten identified openers are very important. Having (1) the pipes, or tools and structure of the technical systems that encourage learning, (2) free and open content and resources, and (3) a shift in the culture willing to share at a global level are critically important to the changes I have witnessed. (I don’t have the physical book – so this is at Kindle Location #1119)I can remember just 8 years ago when I accepted my first teaching job and had ZERO computers and not even a telephone in the classroom. Without even the possibilities for internal collaboration using technology, the opportunities for worldwide collaboration were not even a dream. I have since moved on from that school to one that has 5 networked computers in every classroom and we have implemented new technologies nearly every year. So the pipes I have access to have opened up the world of possibilities for myself and, more importantly, for my students. I have young students (Kindergarten and 1st graders), but as I read each opener, I saw the potential for each and every one to have a place in my classroom. Also, as the technology coordinator for my district, I see the potential district-wide! (Side note – the bandwidth of the “pipes” in our area seems to be lacking lately – very frustrating to be reading an interactive online book together only to have it blitz out!) The “3 P’s” (pipes, pages, participants) really make all of the creation and collaboration possible, so without them, we wouldn’t be making use of the wonderful tools like SchoolTube and KidBlog! In fact, Bonk goes on to say that “if the resources and infrastructure are in place, but the education community, as well as society as a whole, fails to maximize their power, then millions of unique learning possibilities will be lost.” (Kindle Location 1142) And that is the critical point which we are at in education. Without a vast rewrite of how we approach preparing our students for the world, the pipes and pages will be largely underutilized. In fact, this also reminds me of Missy McCarthy’s post about the course overview, where she said “For me, it is important that the technology used supports my practice and aides in solving a problem of practice to increase student learning and achievement.” (9/7/2010) We all are focused on the achievement of our students; it is a major reason for being a teacher. As long as the technology solutions (the pipes) will benefit the students (participants) as active consumers and creators of content (the pages), we are moving forward in a positive direction. As an interested student myself, I found a lot of Bonk’s information about e-learning and the many

options available to be overwhelmingly exciting! Schools do not need to work so much about memorizing (Location 1211). We are even moving beyond simply posting content (Location 3982-93). In fact, we even have teachers doing “anti-teaching” and (gasp) requiring students to process their learning in interesting ways such as creating videos (Location 4394). I know that the 21st century literacies include this type of creation, and I am very motivated to use these strategies as a teacher and a learner. My own motivation increases when approaching multimedia types of projects, and I have witnessed the same phenomenon in my own students when I explain “you are going to use the webcam on the netbooks today.” This reminds me of Hyewon Lee’s post in our discussion forum regarding technology literacy, saying “It is true that computer networks have extended the scope of literacy to the extent of including electronic literacy as one component of literacy, noting that new modes of communication have influenced our way of communicating and asserting that students should be prepared to recognize, use, understand, analyze, and interpret multiple discourses and media in changing contexts.” (9/23/2010). Recognize, use, understand, analyze, and interpret: these are a far cry from memorization. If our students are going to compete in the new global economy, they will be strong in these higher-level thinking skills.I had read (well, listened to) The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman all summer and I’m finding that I really enjoyed reading Bonk’s educational flatteners after having read Friedman's ideas. I have a new appreciation of the global economy after reading that, and an increased motivation to prepare my students for this world by utilizing the WE ALL LEARN flatteners. Does anyone else’s brain hurt from this amazing stuff?!?!?!?!?

Forum: Integrative ConnectionsGive the old forums a quick reading. Be on the lookout for things discussed in the earlier contexts that suggest an interesting connection to something discussed in the Bonk forum. Identify one such point of connection, presenting briefly the earlier point, the point made in the Bonk discussion, and a few sentences about why you think they “bounce off of each other” in an interesting way. Both of the connected points should be ones posted by someone other than you. Using the web means my teacher resources and materials have grown exponentially. However, with the question of citation and giving credit, I find myself “grappling with the issues of who owns the content”. How can I use all the abundance of resources at my disposal without discrediting those who have done all the work? By Jennifer Waters in Form IIWhile reading and thinking about the open educational movement I was constantly reminded about the “new literacy” that we also talk a lot about when referencing all of the available technology that is available to our students. Not only do they need to learn to read, write and think in the traditional sense but they need to be able to create, collaborate and participate within the environment created by “Learning 2.0”. The big question is how, as educators to we address the needs of students within this new environment of literacy. I am particularly intrigued by the point that the forward brings up about the opportunity that this environment provides for students to find and connect with a passion. That connecting with this passion could be the key to opening up every students greatest potential. By Bridgit in forum II Both of these posts speak to issues that I am interested in as a result of reading Thomas Friedman and Curtis J. Bonk. I just met with two of our middle school teachers this week that teach computers but hadn’t heard the phrase Web 2.0, let alone the myriad of terms, tools, and issues that go with it. I spent the majority of my time with them showing them how to use some of these tools to meet the 3 pillars of the METS curriculum (which they had read and said wasn’t any help since they didn’t have a frame of reference for it.) Creativity, collaboration and communication are highlighted K-12 in this curriculum and they can create a Learning 2.0 environment using a lot of the tools. I shared a document with them which I received from Rita Mortenson when she presented at the DEN online conference last Saturday. I've attached a few sample pages here. I printed it immediately and I love it! It includes many tools listed in many lists we all know - but the "classroom ideas" section is an eye-catcher to teachers with no idea what to do with a tool they already don't understand!I don’t think there is any way to skirt around the issues, though. These teachers were excited, but they still had questions for me like “What about accounts, if our students aren’t allowed to sign up? Where do we put their work and how do we grade it?” These logistical questions are all things we are required to answer, but creative commons licensing can help with the issue of who owns the content and increased familiarity with the new literacy by educators and students will help us find answers regarding collaboration and participation in the global world of learning!

Forum: Instructional Dream part 1Your final project will be an assemblage of materials from free and open sources on the Web. In working up to that project, I first want you to think about your Instructional Dreams that have been thwarted in the past (mainly by an absence of existing curriculum materials that were as suited to how you would like to teach as you might have wished). ------------------HERE’S PART I OF THE INSTRUCTIONAL DREAM ASSIGNMENT:Think about limits that you have encountered in your teaching, things that have prevented you from teaching your students in a way that would maximize the kind of ***LEARNING*** that you would like them to achieve.Note that I am not referring to obstacles like behavior problems, but rather the learning that would occur if your students were well behaved and cooperative. Also, assume for now that constraints, like those imposed by not having good enough equipment, Internet connections, tech support, etc., are not an issue. Similarly, disregard external constraints like teaching toward No Child Left Behind mandates (unless you want to balance those with your instructional dream), and assume you could do what YOU, as a professional and an expert on some topics, would choose to do if you somehow could).What would you most like to do if you could -- what kind of learning goals for your students would you most like to achieve -- that you have been frustrated in accomplishing in the past?In short, what is your instructional dream? What can't you do now that you would most want to do if it were somehow possible?This assignment is NOT about technology (yet) – that will come in in Part II. Part I is about wishes that you have for the learning of your students that have been frustrated in the past or were things that seemed so utopian that you did not ever bother to wish for them.There is no background required for you to respond to this assignment, nothing you need to know about technology or about anything, for that matter, other than what your head and heart have told you about kinds of lessons you wish you could teach, and the knowledge & abilities that your students would achieve as a result.Be sure your dream is something about which you have deep feelings, something you have a lot of passion about when you think about it or talk about it.Shoot for around 300 words or less for this assignment.This assignment should be posted by November 3. If you are not sure about any of this – or, as always about anything in the course – be sure to dash off an email note to me for quick clarification. (Many of you have been doing that, and I think you have found it beneficial.) If only I could have these qualities in my environment, I would be a content teacher!Create, Collaborate, and Communicate:These three pillars of the MI educational technology standards are my focus. Rather than always thinking “how do I include science and writing?” I am thinking “what are they creating? Who are they working with? How are they sharing these ideas with the world?”

Assignments with a higher purpose than test scores and skill and drill. I don’t have to forego a creative assignment so we can do our spelling test.Time to think, talk and reflect. We don’t have to end a great discussion about severe weather to make it to music on time. We talk to the class, we talk to partners and groups, we talk to other people around the world. And then...Making connections and learning about the world. All of our learning opportunities connect to each other. We have time to figure out how life cycles work and how is that like other cycles?Leading my students to learning opportunities rather than controlling those opportunities. We begin units with finding out what it is we want to find out. We plan together how to learn the answers to our questions. The teacher stimulates the opportunity rather than designing all of the activities.Inspiring their sense of inquiry rather than squashing it. We aren’t limited by the excessive number of standards in a grade level; rather they are numerous enough to guide us to exciting explorations without cramming too much and limiting the scope of our inquiry. No more “sorry, kids, we have to be done with weather because we have to ‘cover’ plants.These are the things that I wish for. These are the things I take hold of and include whenever I can steal time for them!