Learning 2.008 Technology Conference…Shanghai

September 23, 2008 * Comments(1)

Last week I attended the Learning 2.008 Conference in Shanghai, China. It was a fast and furious 3 day conference focused on 21st century learning with technology. I attended many excellent keynotes, sessions, and “unconference” sessions (sessions that are inspired by learning throughout the conference, suggested and/or lead by participants).

The best statement I heard at the conference was by David Warlick in an unconference session on “Echo Chambers” (described as networking with all of the same people and through the same sites over and over, see blog post). He said, the definition of being a teacher in a time of rapid change means being a master learner. I thought not only does this statement define teachers, but our learners too. Students of today must be master learners. They cannot just be recipients of information, they must learn the skills to navigate their own learning to thrive in the 21st century.

Conference Session highlights for me were:
If I had to choose one key point that David made in this session it is that as an educator/learner you have to cultivate a personal learning network yourself. To build a community of learning you must be proactive in reading what others are writing, comment, and generate successes from these conversations. Effective use of blogging (writing one yourself, reading others, commenting, and provoking comments) are central to a personal learning network. Using blogrolls and RSS are tools that will help you to manage and keep up with your personal learning network.
Another key point is to train information to find you. Using a blogroll embedded into your own blog will allow you to see when blogs you find most relevant have new posts. Setting up the RSS feeds will bring information to you, instead of you having to go to several different sites to see if there is updated information. Organizing your RSS feeds into folders such as “every day” and “every week” will help you to organize the information most relevant to your learning in a manageable way.
To me, the strongest point that Clarence made in this session is that in order to promote the kinds of learners we want our students to become, we must redefine teachers. Teachers must become more of a network administrator whose main job is no longer providing content but helping students find their network by connecting them with content, people, information. He points out that with kids, community is more important than audience. You must be careful of putting students’ work on the web just for the sake of getting an audience as it can lead to sensationalism. He argues instead that students can work within a public network and make a positive contribution to knowledge. To achieve this he describes a studio style classroom organization. A lot is happening simultaneously. The master (teacher) would supervise apprentices (students), giving them more and more responsibility as they mature, more choices over time.
Please visit the conference site on Ning for more information about keynotes, presenters, sessions, and notes from the conference. There is a wealth of information on 21st century learning and technology and links to great resources there.

Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowlege…

July 6, 2008 * Comments(0)

Tackling a “Problem of Practice”…

In my current graduate coursework for the Michigan State University Masters in Educational Technology I was given the assignment to address a specific problem of practice and advocate for a plan that solves or reduces that problem.  Below is an overview of the project:

Overview:

 For this project you will:

1. Identify a problem of practice

2. Use the TPACK framework to address the problem

3. Create a web-based experience that presents your problem and solution to your peers, and explain the thinking process that led you to this solution as opposed to other

Specific

Focus on a specific problem that you want to address (for example, dividing by fractions). When possible, include the relevant content and technology standards that apply.

Based on your problem of practice, discuss what you believe to be the best solution for your problem given the reality of the contexts in which you practice. Using the TPACK framework, you’ll be defending why you’ve made the decisions you have by contrasting them against other possible decisions  that you could have made.

Areas that you will want to address in your experience include:

1. Content: what is it that you want students (or others) to learn and be able to do? What are the problems 

Areas that you will want to address in your experience include:

  1. Content: What is it that you want students (or others) to learn and be able to do? What are the problems different students might have learning this content?
  2. Context: What is the specific context in which you are working in? What are the affordances and constraints of this context?
  3. Technology: What technology seems be best suited for your problem? Why this as opposed to other potential options?
  4. Pedagogy: What pedagogies do you think will work best given your choice of content and technologies? Why this choice over others?
  5. Interrelatedness: How are other areas (technology, pedagogy, etc) affected by changes in one another?

Focus: 

The end product for this project is not a MS Word document. Rather, you will be creating a web-based, multimedia experience designed to help other teachers and educators learn from you.