Ms. B’s Thoughts

An interesting discussion emerged in the undergraduate class I teach on Monday nights. I have the students reading and reflecting on various articles related to education. The first was an extreme proposal by Alvin Toffler in his article Future Schools: Reshaping the Future from the Ground Up, in his article Toffler proposes a totally new look at how schools are organized. Included in this was the idea of a 24/7 school. Many of the students took that to mean that the doors of the school would be open 24/7 and that students could come and go at will. I believe the intent was to have learning available at a variety of times depending on the needs of the individual students. It wasn’t until I read through their blog comments that I was able to pickup on this and a few other misconceptions. We circled back to the discussion again and revisited the authors ideas. The blog was just a tool I used to pick their brains. To find out what they were thinking. Everyone could understand each other through reading each others posting. That coupled with the in-class discussion and the perspective I brought as a veteran teacher created an avenue for deeper understanding. The teacher was still essential.

Throughout other postings I am getting to know my students, things that bother them, things that excite them, how they learn, process and even manage their time. I have late night learners, last minute procrastinators and those that finish the assignment given before I have even driven the 20 minutes back to Negaunee. It is interesting to see these emerging personalities in such a short time frame. (Note: in addition to the blog, they are using an online companion site for their textbook and they are completing T/F, M/C and essay questions for each chapter. The results are automatically sent to my email.)

Technology is just a tool. In one student’s blog they complained that the use of technology can get in the way of learning. That it can be overdone. (My first thought was…overdone = worksheets, there is nothing in our education system more overdone than worksheets…) I think that the anxiety I have seen from my students as I push them to use more technology to access information and communicate with each other is a prime example of WHY we need to teach more using technology…why there needs to be more professional development TIME for teachers to learn new technologies. The best use of technology for learning is when you don’t even notice the technology–you just see the engagement of the learners, feel the excitement in the classroom, and hear the discussions in the hallways.

I have seen this happen with blogging. In a nanosecond of time, I have seen it work. Twice. The first in our freshmen English 9 blog. We planted the seeds…and just with a little cultivating, they have grown…they are comfortable. They have voices and they feel confident in expressing themselves. The second time, very similar to the first, was in this college class. Brand new to blogging, some were nervous, anxious, and took weeks to learn the process. Others took right too it, confidently expressing themselves, navigating the process, posting, commenting, uploading pictures. They are all coming along, expressing themselves differently than they do in class…some quiet there are more confident online.

It is interesting…and so much fun…to see this all happening…I just can’t wait to learn more!

On Monday during my NMU classes I asked students questions about familiarity with blogging, podcasting, wikispaces, social bookmarking (del.icio.us, digg, even threw out iKeepBookmarks). I was met with a few hesitant hands rising and a lot of blank stares. Now, NMU is supposed to be a high tech fully wireless laptop university. This course is a 300 level course so assuming most students are on a traditional course of study, many of the people in my classes are of senior or junior status. They have been issued a computer for 3-4 years now. I don’t know what I expected, but the response took me a moment or two to process. Given all I have been reading and my complete obsession with technology, the web and learning, I actually began to second guess myself and wonder if some of my anti-technology colleagues were right. Was I living in my own reality? Was this stuff not really happening in education or did I just happen to be reading about the only places in our country that were using the web for learning?

Some say timing is everything–and in this case it is true! As a part of our semester exam in our co-taught freshmen English class, we gave our students an article to read, The New Face of Learning: The Internet Breaks School Walls Down, http://www.edutopia.org/new-face-learning, by Will Richardson. We gave them a choice to take paper copy of the article and also posted the link to the article on our class blog. We posted some reflection questions and asked them to tie in the blogging experience this semester with what the author of the article had to say about technology and learning. Now, after Monday evening and my perplexing responses from college students, the blog postings by our freshmen were so exhilarating. Not only did they think blogging was cool…but the were making connections between traditional learning styles and technology learning styles. They were reflective, insightful and really made connections between the article and our blogging experience. I will provide the links to our classroom site here. After seeing David Warlick at NECC in Atlanta, I chose to set up our class with ClassBlogmeister and it has proven to be a great tool for managing blogs in the classroom.

http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=114133

If you would like to make a comment to the blog, email me to request our class password.

Posing this question to the students has turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Many students let us know how they really felt about using this method of learning, both positively and negatively. It reminded me how important it is to listen to the students and give them opportunity to reflect and provide input into their learning.

I am planning to share this information with my NMU students…regardless my freshmen responses sure made me feel better about my current reality. And I truly believe that collaborating, communicating, sharing, interacting and engaging students through the use of technology is where authentic learning takes place.

My mind keeps racing over and under and inside and outside of all the things I need to/want to do for my class on Monday.  Part of me feels bad for my students.  I may very well overwhelm them with my enthusiasm.  I will try to contain it, yet feel like I do really have something to offer them.  Hopefully they will come away from the course with a solid understanding of special education history and law.  I want them to be able to have compassion and empathy for all students, regardless of abilities.  I hope that they learn how to access the resources around them and on the internet.  If they can remember that all students are capable of learning and that learning takes place on so many different levels. I want them to be teachers who think of teaching as a process that is constantly changing and evolving.  Should you ever be happy and content with what and how you are teaching?  I think there was a time in education that teachers created a routine, set a schedule and stuck to it, semester after semester, year after year.  A new teacher would come in and the veteran teacher would hand him a binder, the text book, a folder with tests and keys to all of the homework assignments.  They were proud of all they had accomplished and would make comments to the new teacher like, “Why reinvent the wheel?”  as they handed their classroom over.   I am not passing judgement on our veteran teachers or the methodologies of teacher who came before me.  I do think we live in vastly different times.  A different universe.  Things are changing so rapidly that it is hard to imagine presenting information, following the schedule, testing each student the same way year after year.  While they are a bit immature, our freshmen class is a great deal more techie than our senior class.  Think about the world 3 years ago.  (What a crazy statement that seems to be…3 years ago??) But yes, three years ago.  Information is so rapidly at our finger tips and the kids are accessing this information. They are living, breathing this technology.  It is a part of their vernacular.  Tell them, Go to Google docs.  Fill out the registration. Create a username and password.  You will need to verify the site through your email address.  All of these instructions are taken in like the old fashioned, Take out a piece of paper.  Put your name and the date at the top.  Please include your class hour.  They don’t think twice and need very little assistance.  Even three years ago, students wouldn’t have been able to do that so effortlessly.  This is exciting.  But scary as well.  We are not ready for them.  Our school, anyway, is ill prepared to support the technology needed to provided our students with the access they need to fully realize the potential learning power of the web.  It is frustrating because the response from the teachers that aren’t moving forward is that since we don’t have the access, we can’t move forward.  What they aren’t understanding is that with our without them, forward progress is being made…and at a pace so quickly they will either be swept up and able to ride the wave or be washed aside to drown.  

Things are changing.  Time is flying.  Children are growing, so sassy and fun!  Life is grand.  The new year rolls in with a lot of new challenges for me and I am so excited for all that lies ahead!  I am teaching two sections of a course at NMU this semester, ED361 Special Education for the General Education teacher.  I am passionate about helping students with disabilities and I hope that I can share my experiences with my students.  Of course I will also be sharing any and all technology information they can handle.  Even though they will be using the dreaded PC’s, I will try to keep my love of Macs contained!